


On A Spaceship. In Bed. At Night.

by wallbanger2008



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Apritello, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Making Out, Outer Space, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, in spaaaace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:34:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29292978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wallbanger2008/pseuds/wallbanger2008
Summary: Hurtling through space isn’t all high adventure and dizzying space walks. When April finds it hard to calm herself down after a rough day, she finds herself making her way to Donnie’s room more and more often. Is it just for comfort… or is there something more?Based on a prompt from GeorgiePie.
Relationships: Donatello/April O'Neil (TMNT)
Comments: 157
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this fic came from GeorgiePie, who submitted it as a prompt for [Tasty Apritello One Shots](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25131289/chapters/61670689) last summer. I originally wrote it as a one shot ([Chapter 12](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25131289/chapters/61670689)), but the idea kept running around in my head and would not rest. So, now I’m doing it as a multi-chapter fic. Enjoy, and an extra special thank you to GeorgiePie, who gave birth to this idea in the first place!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place following the events of The Moons of Thalos 3, aka the episode where we meet Mona Lisa for the first time. I always found it a little crazy that by the time that episode ends, the gang has been through a TON of shit and still hasn’t slept. Like, my god.

April tossed and turned in her bed. She should be able to sleep. She was surrounded by ideal conditions to sleep--the steady, low white noise of the ship’s engines, the soothing ambient purple light emitted from the low-wattage recessed foot lights in her room, the comfortable duvet on her bed. Even the complete absence of clutter in her spartan room should help her drift off to sleep--theoretically, at least. 

On top of all that, there was the fact that she was utterly exhausted. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much packed into her day. Day? Days? When was the last time she slept? She attempted to do some mental math, but quickly gave up. It had to have been more than 24 hours though. 

Not that those 24 hours hadn’t been absolutely… something. The battle in the park and the destruction of Earth seemed years away. Somehow, they’d managed to squeeze in boarding the Fugitoid’s ship, walking in space, visiting an alien market, getting chased through space by Dregg, crash landing on an ice planet, and fighting ice dragons all into one day. Days? Whatever. The point was, any one of those events would have made for an exciting day on its own. Put them all together and she should be coma-level tired--even after falling into a brief, hypothermia-induced sleep.

But she wasn’t. Not really, anyway. Her body was exhausted, but her mind was still buzzing--and not in a good way. All the excitement of being in space and seeing and fighting actual aliens--seriously, she had a laser gun now, how cool was that!?--had made for some A plus distraction material. 

But now, in the silence of her room with nothing left to distract her, April’s mind kept returning to one thing: The horrifying sight of her world, her home, crumbling into the evil-looking depths of a black hole. She couldn’t close her eyes without seeing it playing over and over on loop. Her mind supplemented the picture with the horrible cracking and groaning noises of a planet being ripped apart, and most sickeningly of all, the panicked screams of her father calling out for her, begging to know where his daughter was even as he was being devoured by the insatiable gravitational force. 

She turned over again and smushed her face into her pillow, fighting the temptation to scream in frustration. She needed to sleep. If the last 24-ish hours were any indication, she’d need to be well-rested and on her top game for this mission they were about to embark upon. And yet. She shut her eyes and watched her home disappear once more. _Fuuuuuuck_. 

She punched her mattress and sat up, wondering if the Fugitoid might have some sort of space equivalent of NyQuil before dismissing the thought. What if they were attacked? She couldn’t be zonked out on downer cold meds. Thinking of meds gave her an idea, though. 

If anyone could help her, Donnie could. He’d know something that could do the trick. Either something medical or some sort of mind trick, he’d be able to help. He always helped.

She glanced around, unable to tell precisely what time it was, but knowing that they as a group had called it a “night” a couple hours ago gave her pause. Donnie could be sleeping right now. She worried her lip, trying to decide what to do. She didn’t want to bother him, but this was Donnie she was thinking about. He wouldn’t turn her away. Sighing to herself, she climbed out of bed and wondered how far over the Taking Advantage of Donnie Line she was about to step. Well, it wasn’t like she was asking him to do anything crazy. Just… wake up for a second and talk to her. No biggie. 

Mindful of the quiet ship, she slipped silently out of her room and padded down the hallway toward Donnie’s room, still clad in her ship-provided pajama pants and shirt. 

She wondered if Casey and the other turtles were asleep, or if they, like her, were struggling. She paused again outside of Donnie’s door before knocking quietly. There was no response, and after waiting a minute, she tried again. Nothing.

She glanced up and down the hallway, trying to decide what to do before taking a deep breath and placing her hand on the door handle. As quietly as she could, she opened the door slowly and poked her head in. 

“Donnie?” she whispered. 

She scanned the room. It was identical to hers: A bed, a nightstand, a table with a single chair, and a door leading to what she assumed was a bathroom just like hers. No decorations, no frills. The only sign that someone was living here was the pile of pads and wrapping on the table and the two staffs--one metal, one wooden--propped up in the corner. That, and the large turtle lying spread-eagle on the bed. 

April tip-toed in and closed the door behind her. As she approached the bed, she could hear the familiar sound of Donnie snoring softly, the gap in his teeth making a little whistling noise. He looked adorable, she thought, as she stood over him. Over the last however many hours, she’d seen a myriad of emotions pass over his face, from grief to elation. Now, it felt like a warm layer had settled over her heart to see him looking so peaceful. 

Slowly, she reached down and placed a hand on his shoulder, not wanting to jar him awake. 

“Donnie,” she whispered again.

He stirred and mumbled something in his sleep.

“Donnie.” She gave him a little shake. 

“Hmmm?” He sat up a little and opened his eyes. “April?” he said blearily as if he couldn’t believe she was there. 

“Hey,” she whispered, keeping her voice low even though she knew the walls were thick. 

He sat up further and backed himself up against his pillows. “Did you…” he glanced at the door, clearly still puzzled as to how she’d come to be there. 

“Sorry,” she said hastily. “I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear me, so I let myself in… aaand now I’m starting to realize how presumptuous that was. Sorry,” she drifted off, losing confidence. Maybe this had been a mistake. 

But he shook his head. “No, no, it’s fine. Are you ok?”

It’s a funny thing, how conditioned people are to automatically say “Yes,” when asked if they’re ok, regardless of how they feel. April was no different, and she found herself automatically beginning to nod in response before she caught herself and began shaking her head instead. 

Donnie leaned toward her. “What’s wrong.”

She sighed. “I can’t sleep. I… I just keep seeing it. Over and over. The world just…” her voice cracked and she hunched in on herself as it all came washing over her--the grief of watching her world die along with everyone she’d known and loved outside of this bizarre little family she’d carved out for herself. 

“Oh! Oh… April,” her eyes were shut tightly as she fought off the oncoming tears, but she sensed him moving as he shoved his covers off and slid to the edge of the bed. She felt his arms wrap around her and she fell into him.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffled into his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to come in here and cry all over you.” She cringed inwardly, not proud of the fact that she’d broken down. None of the guys were crying. _Suck it up, O’Neil._

Donnie shook his head and awkwardly patted her shoulder. “Nothing to be sorry about,” he said gently. “It’s been… it’s been a lot.”

April took a steadying breath and pulled back. “I just can’t stop picturing it,” she sighed. “I thought with everything that happened today, I’d be asleep before my head hit the pillow, but… I can’t.”

“Well…” he looked around him tentatively. “Do you want to… to hang out? Talk?”

April nodded. “If that’s ok. I know you were just sleeping.”

He waved her off. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I’d rather hang out with you while I’m alive.”

She let out a little snort and gestured toward the bed. “Is it ok if I…?”

“Oh, yeah, climb aboard,” he scooted aside eagerly and she strained to keep from smiling. She was very aware that he was probably all too happy to have her sitting in bed with him. 

She eased onto the mattress and slid over until she was sitting next to him. There was a beat of silence as they stared at each other.

“Soooo,” Donnie drawled out. “Hell of a day.” He was keeping his voice steady and casual, as if their day had consisted of nothing more than eating pizza and messing around in the lab. “I, uh, I think my favorite part was watching our beloved fearless leader nearly become giant toe jam because he decided it was a good time to try out his interstellar pick up game.”

“Oh god, that’s right. What was he thinking?” April smiled, thinking back to earlier. 

Donnie chuckled. “I don’t know. Maybe ‘My pseudo-sweetie Karai is lightyears away, now’s my chance to get freaky with some alien babes à la Captain Ryan’?”

April giggled, grateful that Donnie was able to distract her from the thoughts that had been running through her head. She could already feel herself calming down. “Your brother has… interesting taste in women.”

“Which brother?” Donnie snorted, elbowing her gently, and she knew he was referring to Mona Lisa.

“True. I can’t believe Raph just _went_ for it like that,” she said, scooting down a bit to make herself more comfortable. 

“Eh, I can,” Donnie said, following her example and scooting down a bit too. “He’s not exactly one to tip-toe into things. I guess I’m more surprised that _Mona_ was the one to catch his fancy.”

“Hmm. Has he ever… I don’t know. Expressed any interest in any girls before?”

“Are you asking if he has a type?” She could detect a note of jealousy in his voice and smothered the urge to roll her eyes. 

“No,” she said easily. “I guess I’ve just never heard him comment on what or who he thought was attractive. Kinda weird.”

Donnie shrugged. “He likes girls. I overheard him once agree with Leo that Karai was hot. And he’ll sometimes make comments about different actresses he thinks are attractive, so I just figured he liked human women. But that theory’s clearly shot to hell.” He grinned at her.

She smiled, enjoying the ease of sliding back into familiar conversation, feeling wholly comfortable for the first time in hours. This was just her and Donnie, hanging out and talking. She slid further down until she was laying on her side and once again, Donnie copied her movements. 

“So, what was your favorite part of the day?” he asked. 

“Hmmm, definitely going out into space,” she said and yawned as she thought back to the peaceful, calming feeling of drifting weightless through space. “And hanging out in the market before everything went crazy was fun.”

“It was, wasn’t it?”

“Dueling Donnies,” she reminisced fondly, a gentle smile playing about her lips as she thought back to earlier. 

“Double your pleasure, double your fun,” he mirrored her smile and wriggled his brows before breaking out into that dorky laugh that always made her melt a little on the inside. “Those crystals were amazing. To think that items possessing that kind of power were just… out for sale.”

“I know. In New York, you have to get a guy to unlock the razor blades for you at Duane Reade, but here if you want to clone yourself, it’s like, oh, help yourself,” she agreed. 

“And how about the crystal you had? Emotionally responsive transmutation? Incredible.”

April smiled to herself as she remembered the crystal changing in her hands as it reflected her warring feelings of interest, surprise… and then the carefully unlabeled feeling she had toward Donnie. Or in this case, Donnies. “Yeah, it was cool. Like a galactic mood ring,” she said. “Imagine taking that home.”

“You’d cause quite a stir, I think,” Donnie said drowsily.

“Hmmm. Yeah.” She could feel herself starting to get pulled under as sleep began to call to her. She shouldn’t fall asleep here. It would be inappropriate. It could give Donnie the wrong idea. It could give the others the wrong idea. She’d just rest her eyes for a couple minutes and then make her way back to her room. 

“Makes me wonder what those other crystals might have been,” she heard Donnie saying softly beside her. “Just imagine the possibilities…”

* * *

_“Attention, everyone. Please report to the bridge. I’ve received a distress signal from a nearby ship. Please report to the bridge as soon as you’re able.”_

April’s eyes shot open at the sound of the Fugitoid’s voice over the comm system. So much for just resting her eyes. How long had she been asleep? She moved to sit up, her new plan being to slip out of Donnie’s room before he noticed and things potentially got awkward. As she moved however, she noticed something weighing down her stomach. 

She glanced down. At some point in the night, Donnie had slung an arm over her. She knew from experience that Donnie was a heavy sleeper, but she was a little surprised he hadn’t woken up when the Fugitoid had called. She looked from his arm up to his sleeping face. He wasn’t close enough for it really to be considered spooning, but it was still enough to bring warmth to her cheeks. They’d spent the night together. In bed. And he’d… he’d cuddled her. 

Yep, it was definitely time to go. From the sound of it, there was a new mission afoot and now was absolutely not the time for her and Donnie to be tripping all over each other as they continued their we’re-friends-but-also-kinda-more-than-that dance. Decision made, she slid across the bed, making it a few inches before Donnie yawned loudly and tightened his grip on her, pulling her backwards and closer to him. Groaning in exasperation--so much for a stealthy slink off--she set about peeling his arm off of her. 

“Donnie,” she whispered.

“Hmmm?”

“Donnie, it’s time to wake up. You’re going to have to let go. Of me.”

His hand suddenly retracted off of her as if she’d burned him, and she spun around to see that he was now fully awake and looking surprised. 

“Oh! Sorry! I didn’t realize,” he stammered. “Sorry, I guess I fell asleep.”

“We both did.”

There was a moment of awkward silence before they both spoke at once.

“Sorry.” “Sorry.”

They exchanged a small smile.

“It’s not a big deal,” April said, getting out of bed and eager to put this behind her. It was only a big deal if they made it one, right? So they shared a bed? So what? Was that any different from the times they’d both fallen asleep on the couch in the lair? Or when they’d slept in sleeping bags next to each other on the floor of Antonio’s after the invasion? 

“Right,” Donnie nodded. “No biggie. We were just overly tired and yeah. No big deal,” he laughed weakly and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Yeah. No big deal,” April repeated. “I’m just gonna… I’m going to go get dressed. I don’t know if you heard the Fugitoid’s announcement, but he wants us on the bridge.”

“Oh, right. I must have slept through that. Ok. I, uh, I guess I will see you there,” he said, finishing with a corny little finger gun fire toward her.

“Yep. See you there,” she laughed awkwardly as she backed out of the door. 

She sighed once the door was shut behind her. Ok, that could have been better. It also could have been worse though. 

“Morning, April.” 

She jumped a little, then turned to see Raph standing alarmingly close to her and looking obnoxiously smug. How had she not noticed him?

“Uh, good morning,” she said.

“Nice of you to make sure Donnie was up,” he said, leaning casually on the wall. “I assume that’s what you were just doing in there.”

She got the distinct feeling that Raph was playing with his food before eating it. 

“Oh, well, you know, he’ll sleep through anything,” she said, inching around him and toward her room. 

“Right, right. So you just ran up here to wake him up. Didn’t even bother to get changed first?” Raph smirked down at her pajamas. 

“Uh, yep.”

“Such a good friend.”

“Heh, the best.”

“Hmmm.” Raph narrowed his eyes at her for a second, then broke out into a big grin. 

“What?”

“Aw, nothing,” he said, picking himself off the wall. “You know me. Never been one to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong.” He began walking down the hallway toward the bridge, then called over his shoulder. “Hope you enjoyed your little sleepover!” 

April opened her mouth to retort, but heard another door starting to open. Not wanting to call any more attention to herself, she instead turned and ran to her room, closing her door safely behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by The People’s Movement To Get These Kids Some Proper Mental Health Care. Like, I know it’s just a cartoon, but jeeeesus, the trauma-induced issues these guys must be dealing with (or rather AREN’T dealing with) is like off the charts insane. Just saying.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place following the events of The Outlaw Armaggon, aka the episode where they get chased by the space shark onto the broken down base that’s been taken over by the AI and it attempts to turn them all into androids.

It had been a week since she’d accidentally fallen asleep in Donnie’s bed. Since then, April had stuck to sleeping in her own room, in her own bed. Because that’s where she was supposed to sleep. She wasn’t supposed to sleep in Donnie’s bed with him, because that would be… wrong. And weird. And inappropriate. Right?

And yet although she had been able to catch a few winks each night since that first one, she hadn’t been able to sleep as soundly as she had when she was with Donnie. She’d gotten some serious REM cycles in that night, even if she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. On the other hand, when she slept in her room, her sleep was fitful and she woke up several times throughout the night. It wasn’t enough to leave her feeling groggy during the day, but she could tell she wasn’t operating at peak levels, either. 

Still, she’d maintained her resolve to stick to her own bed… no matter how well she suspected she might sleep in his. And she _certainly_ never thought about how good it had felt to wake up with his arm around her and how nice and warm it made her feel when she thought back to it. Which she never did. Nope.

It took nearly being transformed into an android to break her resolve. Adrenaline and peer pressure had helped her maintain a courageous face throughout the event, but when it had all worn off, she was left feeling shaken and all around freaked out. She couldn’t stop thinking about what might have happened to them if Professor Honeycutt hadn’t pulled through. It was the same gnawing feeling she’d gotten that first night she’d tried to go to bed on the ship, and she knew before she’d even closed her door to change into her pajamas that she’d be going to Donnie’s room. 

He answered the door when she knocked and invited her in. 

“I had a feeling you might visit tonight.”

“Oh? What gave it away?” She took a quick glance around his room and noticed it now had more signs of habitation. A few mugs sat on the table and a towel was hung off the corner of the bathroom door. It was still pretty barren, like her own, but she could see that he was slowly starting to make it his own, one way or another. 

“You looked pretty upset when we were taking our gear off.”

Damn. She thought she’d held it together pretty well. It was something she was forever sensitive about--being seen as the weak, emotional girl. The one who can’t handle all this. The turtles seemed like they were in full-on mission mode and Casey thought everything about space was awesome. None of them ever seemed to have moments of sadness or hopelessness. She’d have to be more careful in the future. 

“Was I that obvious?” she asked, sitting down on the bed. 

Donnie shook his head. “Not really, but, uh, I’ve gotten pretty good at, um, reading you. Plus, you know me, highly observant. Not much you can hide.”

“Hmph.”

“It’s ok to be freaked out, April,” he said softly as he sat down next to her. “For a moment there, I thought we were all going to be living the T-800 lifestyle.”

“It was messed up!” she cried, thankful for the validation. “And like, it would have been one thing if it had been like BAM! You’re an android now. You know, all quick? But instead they made it such a drawn out process. It was like watching your humanity get narrowed down to a pinpoint.” She shivered as she remembered what it was like in those shells. 

Donnie put a comforting hand on top of hers. “But it’s over now. We survived. None of us are androids. Well, none of us who weren’t already androids, anyway.”

“I know, I just can’t stop thinking about it. You know? What if Professor Honeycutt hadn’t saved us?”

“But he did, April. You have to keep telling yourself that. He _did_ save us. Just like he saved us from the black hole. He did it, it happened, and now we’re safe. You’re safe.” He gave her hand a little squeeze and she began to feel warmth radiating up her arm and into her body, bolstered by him being there. 

Acting on impulse, she twisted and threw her arms around him in a hug. She felt him jump a little in surprise before he relaxed into it and enveloped her in his arms. This was what she’d needed. And like, wow, when had she gotten so needy? 

Whatever. She’d worry about it later.

“Thanks,” she mumbled into his plastron, then pushed away. 

He let her go with a little pat on her shoulder. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah,” she sniffed. 

He gave her a goofy smile. “You know, it may sound strange, but I don’t hate the idea of being an android. Well, one like Professor Honeycutt, at least,” he added after seeing her look of horror. 

She stared at him. That may have been the most Donnie thing she’d ever heard him say. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not at all! Think about it. He still possesses his brain, his humanity, but he’s capable of so much now! Interfacing directly with software! Think of the engineering capabilities!”

“Yeah, but at what cost, D?” April shook her head. “He’s missing out on so many… simple pleasures. Like… eating, for example. You’d never have pizza again,” she teased. 

Donnie waved her off. “Pizza, schmeetza, I bet I could program myself to experience the taste of pizza. Technically, it’s all just electrical signals being interpreted by your brain.”

“You wouldn’t be as flexible as you are now,” April argued. “You couldn’t fight like you do now. Metal only bends so far.”

“They’re making astonishing breakthroughs in soft robotics.”

She looked up at him and caught the crooked smirk. He was teasing her. She grinned back, happy to play along. 

“So you’d be a soft android? Is that what you’re telling me?” 

“I think so. I’d retain or even improve my strength while staying pliable and limber.” 

She thought for a moment, trying to picture a Robot Donnie that was still somehow soft. All she could see was a Baymax-looking figure with Donnie’s head on top, and a giggle bubbled out of her. 

“Ok, question from someone who doesn’t read Scientific American,” she said, putting a hand up. 

“Yes?”

“When you say ‘soft robotics,’ what does that mean? Like, how soft? Would you be like a big squishy pillow with a robot body somewhere inside? Or…?”

He chuckled. “I guess I could be. Soft robotics just refers to robots built with flexible materials like silicone or flexible polymers. So yes, I could just be a big squishy Donnie pillow with an embedded metal body. Is that what you’d prefer?”

She laughed again. “It sounds cuddly,” she said, then caught herself. She didn’t want Donnie thinking she wasn’t comfortable with his hard, shell-encased body. “Um, not that you aren’t cuddly enough as you are.” There, that wasn’t awkward at all, was it? She felt her cheeks getting hot. 

“Uh, heh, thanks?” Donnie said, his own cheeks growing dark. He cleared his throat and made a big show of stretching as he stood up. “So, I think I’m gonna get ready for bed. Pretty wiped out after today’s adventure.”

April glanced around. That was her cue to go, but the idea of walking back to her room where she’d sleep fitfully and wake up tired seemed incredibly unappealing. Maybe… She kind of wished they hadn’t just been talking about cuddling. This might be a little less awkward. Still, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, right?

“Uh, Donnie?” Her voice sounded small and tentative. 

“Yeah?”

She bit her lip nervously before speaking. “I was wondering if maybe… um, if I could stay here tonight? With you?”

She watched as Donnie’s brows shot up and his eyes widened. 

“You know, to sleep,” she clarified quickly. “It’s just… I haven’t been sleeping well at all since we got here. Except when I spent that night in here. I slept like the dead that night. I think maybe, it was just, I just felt a little calmer being with you.”

His brow dropped and he tilted his head, considering her. “So… I’m like a, a space security blanket for you?” 

She cringed. That made it sound like she was using him. “No! Well… yeah kinda? Sorry,” she ducked her head and got up. Maybe this had been a bad idea. She took a step toward the door, fully prepared to say goodnight and hightail it back to her room where she could stew in her own embarrassment in peace. 

She was stopped by Donnie’s hand gripping her elbow, and she glanced back at him. 

“You can stay,” he said hurriedly. “I am 100% cool with you staying, heh heh. Fully on board.”

She smiled. _I bet you are_ , she thought as she scooted back on the bed. “No funny business,” she warned him jokingly as she began to make herself comfortable under the covers. 

“No! No! Of course not!” He held his hands up. “Just… just two friends. Bunking up together.” He began to back into the bathroom. “I’m just gonna… get ready.” 

He distractedly maneuvered himself into the bathroom and shut the door. April stretched out under the sheets. This was fine, right? Like Donnie said, it was just two friends bunking together so one of them could get a good night’s sleep. Nothing more. Right. And the fact that she’d been thinking about how nice it had been to wake up in Donnie’s arms that morning had nothing to do with it. 

She huffed and rolled on her side to get more comfortable as the bathroom door clicked open. Donnie emerged, free of his pads and mask, and shuffled somewhat nervously to the side of the bed. He stood there for a moment as if he had forgotten how to get in. 

April patted the mattress next to her. “Come on, Donnie Boy. I won’t bite,” she teased. 

He rolled his eyes good-naturedly and climbed in next to her. He settled his head on the pillow and looked at her. “Another crazy day, huh?”

April snorted. “I’d say so. When getting chased by an anthropomorphic shark wearing a sharky space suit _isn’t_ the wildest part of your day… then yeah, it’s been one for the books.”

“And yet, here we are.” 

They laid together in silence for a moment, staring at each other. _When did he get so cute?_ April wondered. 

Finally, he cleared his throat and looked away. “Uh, good night, I guess,” he said with a lopsided smile. 

“Good night,” April said softly. “Don’t forget the light, D.” 

“Oh, right.” He rolled and stretched toward the lamp on his nightstand, then clicked it off. 

“Thanks again,” April murmured, wanting to make sure he was aware that she was grateful he was cool with being her space blanky. 

* * *

Eight hours later, April woke up feeling rested and full-bladdered. She blinked her eyes open and looked around with a smile. Finally, a full night’s sleep. She sighed in contentment and began to summon the strength it would take to get up. 

But ho ho, what was this? It appeared Donnie was quite the heat-seeking missile at night. Again, he’d wrapped his arm around her, and April smiled as she ran her fingers across the smooth, scaly muscles encircling her. 

He’d gotten closer than last time, in fact he was curled up around her and a little thrill ran up her spine as she wondered how long they’d been spooning. She was suddenly in no particular rush to get up. She snuggled back into him a little closer; she could hold her pee for a few more minutes. 

As she moved, he mumbled something and pulled her closer. She could feel his breath on her neck and she shivered a little, despite being very comfortable under the thick duvet. 

“Mmm you cold?” he muttered, his voice thick from sleep. 

“Uh, a little, I guess,” she lied. She was surprised he wasn’t being more bashful about how close they were. What they were doing… well, it was innocent enough, but still pretty intimate by her standards. 

But a second later she felt him stiffen behind her and his breath hitched. He lifted his arm from across her middle. “Oh geez, sorry April. I-I didn’t realize I…”

She grabbed his arm and put it back where it had been. “It’s fine Donnie,” she said. “You’re very cozy.” 

“Oh… ah, thanks? Sorry, I just didn’t want you thinking i was taking advantage or, or something like that.” 

“You? Never.” She wiggled around until she was facing him. “It’s just like a hug. Only, we’re laying down.” Ugh, that sounded so stupid. 

Apparently Donnie thought so too. He raised a brow, but said nothing other than, “Did you sleep ok?” 

“Yeah. I didn’t wake up all night,” she smiled.

“Good.” 

“Listen, I don’t want you to think I’m using you,” she said. “But seriously, thank you. There’s just something about being next to you. It just… makes me feel better.” 

He smiled broadly and she could see his cheeks taking on a hint of color. “Well, uh, if you ever feel like you want to again, I mean, it’s up to you, but if you want…” he closed his eyes for a second and tried again. “What I’m trying to say is, you’re, uh, welcome here any time. If you want to, that is.” 

“Careful what you wish for there, D,” she warned. He’d just opened up the opportunity that she’d been searching for. She wouldn’t have brought it up if he hadn’t said something. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel like she was using him. 

“Hey, I’d see it as a win-win,” he grinned, then looked faintly alarmed as he realized what he’d just admitted. 

She decided to let him off the hook and not call him on it. “Ok then,” she chuckled. “Plan on me coming back tonight then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to imagine here that the second April leaves the room, Donnie rockets out of bed and starts singing and dancing to What Dreams Are Made Of.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place after the events of The Riddle of the Ancient Aeons, aka the episode where April receives the ill-fated crystal. It’s been a pretty good day for her… until Donnie points out something she hadn’t realized.

After that morning, April had begun spending every night in Donnie’s room. She wasn’t sure if this was what he had pictured when he’d casually thrown out that she was welcome any time, but she wasn’t going to be the one to stop a good thing. 

She still wasn’t certain what it was about sleeping next to Donnie that soothed her so much. It wasn’t that he was all warm and cozy. Well, he was cozy, in his own way, but he was far from warm. In fact, she suspected her cold-blooded friend was actually leeching heat from her throughout the night. And it wasn’t like she was able to sleep completely through the night every night. After those first two, there had been a few nights when she’d been woken up by the sound of Donnie talking in his sleep or rolling into her a little too hard. But even when she did wake up in the middle of the night, it was so easy to slip back under into a warm, steady sleep that left her feeling refreshed when she woke up the next morning. 

It was something else. Something about being in his presence that made her feel almost like she was at home, back on Earth, with no impossible task before them and no strange aliens hunting them down at every turn. Donnie was her anchor back to all things normal. Or, at least as normal as things got for someone like her. 

So each night when everyone decided to go to bed, April would go to her room, change into her pajamas, and then quietly make her way to Donnie’s room where they’d talk until they fell asleep together. After suffering through Raph giving her a hard time that first morning, she’d worked hard to keep their bed sharing a secret. 

Which was a little annoying. Seeing as they weren’t technically doing anything wrong. Just… laying in bed. Together. Her in her pajamas. Him in his… nothing. It was a silly thought, but sometimes it gave her a little thrill that he was technically naked when they were in bed together. Though she was pretty sure she was the only one who thought of it that way. 

Still, it was interesting to think about, especially when she woke up each morning with Donnie’s long limbs wrapped around her. It didn’t matter how far apart they started each night. By morning, Donnie would always have found her and wrapped her up in his arms. The first few times had led to some awkward mornings, mostly on Donnie’s side because April, for her part, didn’t mind it at all, but eventually they’d just gotten used to it as part of their routine. This was her life now, happily waking up being aggressively spooned by a giant, naked turtle. 

If only fifteen year old April could see her now, she laughed to herself as she made her way to Donnie’s room that night. Hey, at least he didn’t get morning wood. Annnd cue mental images of what that might be like. She shook her head to clear it. Picturing her best friend with a hard on seconds before she entered his room to sleep with him wasn’t helpful. 

Forcing herself to think of literally anything else, she paused for a second outside his door to look both ways to make sure the hall was clear. Seeing no one else, she quietly opened the door and whipped inside. 

“Hey.” She heard Donnie’s voice calling from the bathroom. 

“Hey,” she called back as she sat down on what was now unofficially her side of the bed and leaned against the headboard. 

“If it isn’t the hero of the hour,” he teased as he came into view. 

She scoffed. “Please.”

“It’s true,” he said, sitting down on the end of the bed to start untying his wrappings. “You figured out what the soul star was and what we needed to do with it. That was awesome. Give yourself some credit.”

She smiled, remembering the events of the day. “It was awesome,” she allowed. “But you would’ve figured it out too.”

“But I didn’t,” he said, tossing his wrappings on the table in the corner of the room. “That’s why they gave _you_ the crystal. Because you deserved it.” 

“Hmm. It _is_ pretty cool,” she admitted. There was something about that crystal she liked. She hadn’t had a chance to really examine it yet, but still. She was glad it was hers. 

Donnie gave her a sly look. “Pretty nice birthday gift, wouldn’t you say?” 

She blinked at him. “What?” 

He smiled broadly enough that she could see his gap clear across the room. “You haven’t been keeping track?”

No, she hadn’t. Traveling through space meant there was no sun to spin around, and therefore, no real separation of day and night. There were just hours when they were awake and hours when they decided to sleep. It made it difficult to track the days, but apparently not for Donnie. 

She cocked her head. “Was today my birthday?” _Did I really forget my own birthday? Guess it’s still not the weirdest thing that’s happened today._

“No, tomorrow is,” Donnie said as he strode forward and clambered onto the bed to sit next to her. “So I was thinking, we could get the food machine to make a bunch of cakes, all different kinds. But miniature, like tart sized. I thought, since you like cute little things and you like cake… could be fun, right?” 

“Yeah… I guess,” April said wistfully, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. This felt wrong. It didn’t feel like her birthday. She always spent her birthday with her dad. They went out to eat, then to a movie or a show, then came home and had cake. And every year without fail, Kirby would get emotional the second her candles had been blown out and he’d reminisce about the day she was born and get embarrassingly gushy about how proud he was of her. She’d roll her eyes and grin and lap up every second of it. 

But there would be none of that tomorrow. There might be cake, if Donnie had his way, and she was sure the rest of the gang would gather around and sing to her and say nice things to her, but it wouldn’t be the same. 

_I miss my dad._

Her shoulders slumped and she leaned forward, putting her face in her hands. 

“A-April?” She felt Donnie’s hand come to rest tentatively on her back. “What’s wrong? You think it’s a stupid idea, right? Sorry, we don’t have to do the mini cakes… I just thought—”

“No, it’s not the cakes,” she mumbled into her palms. 

“Ok…”

She let out a groan of frustration. “Sorry,” she said, picking her head up. “I didn’t even realize it was my birthday tomorrow. Although…” she paused as a thought occurred to her that might get her out of this “It’s not really technically my birthday at all.”

Donnie frowned. “No, it is, I’ve been keeping track of time. I’ve got it down to the hour.” 

“Yeah, but my birthday was like, a month away when we left. And then we went back six months. So, my birthday is now five months away. Not tomorrow.” Perfect. Now she could shove all these sad, I Miss My Dad feelings down and forget about them. 

Unfortunately, Donnie had other ideas. “Well, what’s interesting about time travel is that it splits an individual’s notion of time into internal and external timelines,” he said excitedly. “Normally, your internal timeline runs perfectly parallel to the external timeline--barring any sort of Benjamin Button disease,” he snorted, amused at his own joke and not noticing that April didn’t join in. “But with time travel, that all goes out the window. Externally, you could travel to, say, fifty years away from being born. But that doesn’t change the fact that internally, you’re still aging.

“So yes, by the calendar on Earth, your birthday is five months away,” he continued. “But as of tomorrow, you will have existed for the equivalent of 19 Earth years. No getting around that!”

He looked at her, probably expecting her to be impressed or amused, but his little talk had done the opposite. She could feel herself mentally sinking backward into the miasma that she had started labeling, “Lost In Space Blues.” It was the very specific feeling she got whenever she let herself think for too long about what had happened and how much she missed home and how much she missed her father and how hopeless she felt about their mission at times. It was not good and for a second she contemplated leaving Donnie’s room so she could go back to hers, burrow into her bed, and go catatonic under the sheets for the next several hours. Happy birthday to her.

But as soon as she had the thought, she felt Donnie’s hand on her wrist. “April?” he asked. “What’s wrong? Not jazzed about turning the big one-nine?”

April shook her head slowly. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She sighed and put her face in her hands again as she fought mightily against the overwhelming urge to cry. Jesus, when did she become such a faucet? She took a deep, calming breath, then, when she felt like she was finally in control of herself, she spoke. 

“Sorry, D. I know you’re trying to be nice. And I appreciate it,” she said slowly, hugging her knees tighter. “But it’s just a little hard to think about it being my birthday when it feels so far from it.” 

She felt Donnie put his hand back on her back and she relaxed a little. “Usually, my dad and I… we spend my birthday together. It’s a special day, you know?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod.

“And this just makes me miss him. More than usual.” A big, fat tear rolled down her face and she growled softly, annoyed at herself for getting so worked up over something so stupid. It didn’t stop the tears that soon followed. 

“Oh, April,” Donnie sighed. She felt him wrap his arms around her and she leaned into him. 

This is why she came here every night. Because Donnie felt like home. And because he understood. He wasn’t like Casey and Mikey, who thought everything they were doing up here was awesome. He wasn’t like Leo, who had blind faith they would succeed in their mission because the alternative was unthinkable. And he wasn’t like Raph, who’d rather go hit something in the holodeck rather than talk about the stress they were all under.

Donnie understood that yeah, what they were doing was incredible, but it was also hard. And painful. And it might not work, but… that didn’t mean they couldn’t find some moments of joy. But that even their highest peaks of elation were easily undercut by the fact that they were missing people. 

They were on the same wavelength, the two of them. And in that moment she was extremely grateful she had him. She wrapped her arms around his middle and squeezed, trying to silently communicate her thoughts. He squeezed her back, and she took that to mean he did. 

After a minute, she pulled back a little and took some deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Donnie let go of her, and returned his hand to her back, rubbing small, comforting circles.

“Hah, geez, I’m sorry Don,” she hiccuped. “I didn’t mean to get all weepy on you.”

“Hey, it’s ok,” he said. “I get it. We don’t have to do the birthday thing tomorrow. A very merry unbirthday to you.”

She giggled. “No, no, it’s fine. I liked your idea about the tiny cakes. That was good. Thanks.”

She put her arms around him and pulled him in for another hug, which he quickly returned. God, what would she do without Donnie? Still in his arms, she turned and kissed him on the cheek. She’d done it a few times before… but for some reason, this time felt different. Almost as if it wasn’t enough. 

So she kissed him again. This time, her lips brushed against the corner of his mouth, and she felt him smile against her cheek. When she pulled back, he gave her a stunned, almost lazy smile, like she’d somehow managed to kiss the thoughts right out of his head. It reminded her of that day at the farmhouse, when she’d kissed him for real. And suddenly, she couldn’t help herself. 

She leaned in again, slower than before, and hummed as she felt her lips brush against his. He was still for a second, then responded, sealing his mouth against hers and tightening his arms around her. She tilted her head and opened her mouth, letting her tongue brush against his. 

All the back and forth in her head was finally quiet. She wasn’t thinking about her father, or Earth, or aliens. She was only thinking of Donnie and how good his mouth felt against hers. She could feel warmth filling her chest and she idly wondered if ‘kissing therapy’ could maybe be a thing. 

Donnie moaned quietly against her and she felt one of his hands sliding up her back and burying itself in her hair. She felt the urge to lie back and take him with her, but then she remembered where they were. Kissing Donnie while they both sat on his bed was one thing. But laying down and making out with Donnie was another, and today had already had enough emotional ups and downs. This was so new and so sweet and she didn’t want to complicate it or scare him off. 

She pulled away from him again and almost giggled at the way he continued to try to seek out her lips for a second before he realized she had backed off. She smiled at him as he opened his eyes. 

“Thanks, D,” she said softly. 

“I feel like _I_ should be the one thanking _you_ ,” he laughed awkwardly. 

They stared at each other for a moment. Apparently Donnie was just as lost as she was. Oh well, it was getting late and she was happy enough for now. She was fine with taking the cowardly way out. 

“I, uh, I’m feeling pretty tired,” she said pointedly, and nodded toward her pillow. 

“Oh, yeah,” he startled. “Are you still gonna…?” He gestured toward her side of the bed.

“Yeah, if that’s alright with you.” She paused as she reached for the corner of the comforter. She hadn’t considered that Donnie might feel a little weird sharing a bed with her right after they’d kissed. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he nodded, obviously trying to play it cool. 

They each slid under the covers and laid their heads on their pillows. 

“Good night, D,” April said quietly, her heart swelling with how happy she currently was to be lying here next to him. She put her index finger to her lips, kissed it, then booped his snout with it. 

He let out a breathy laugh. “Good night, April.” He reached over and turned out his light, and she turned away from him, onto her side that she preferred. 

The bed jostled a little as Donnie rolled around, getting comfortable, and she could feel him moving close behind her. 

“Hey, April?” He whispered. 

“Yeah?”

“Is… is it ok if I?” She felt him put a hand lightly on her hip and she smiled. 

“Go for it,” she said warmly, scooting back into his waiting arms. He’d find her in their sleep anyway, she thought as she felt him lay his arm over her. And besides, it was a nice way to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And boom! Just like that, lines are starting to get crossed. 
> 
> Also... the tiny cakes thing is just what I would do if I had that food machine. Regardless of whether or not it was my birthday.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place following the events of The Arena Of Carnage, aka the episode where the turtles end up in the Triceratron gladiator arena. Turns out April wasn’t too pleased with what she was seeing on the Fugitoid’s scanners.

Back when she’d kissed Donnie at the farmhouse, it had been a momentous thing. It was completely outside of their normal routine and it had altered their friendship permanently, pushing them out of their strict(ly enforced by her) ‘just-friends’ arrangement and into a grey zone where if someone would have asked if she was single, she would still say ‘yes,’ but feel a small twinge in her heart. 

Kissing him in bed had been a momentous thing too. If only because this time she did it with every intention of doing it again. She wasn’t sure where this left them, and like their kiss at the farmhouse, they hadn’t talked about it. 

They never talked about any of the goodnight kisses that followed either, or about how kissing each other goodnight was now a regular part of their bedtime routine—right in between their usual chit chat and falling asleep with Donnie’s arms around her. 

It was all relatively innocent, April kept telling herself. Even the couple of mornings she’d woken up to find Donnie had accidentally gotten a little handsy in the night. The first time she’d woken up to him cupping her boobs while asleep, she’d flushed and extricated herself from his arms before running back to her room. The second time it happened, they’d woken up together, and this time it was Donnie who turned bright red, snatched his hands back as if her breasts were red hot coals and stammered apologies. She’d waved him off and they never spoke of it again. 

She’d woken up again a few more times with Donnie’s hands on her boobs, but after seeing that freak out, she’d always taken care to gently move his hands without waking him. It’s not like she was ever tempted to just let them lie there, all large and strong against her. Nope. _Right_. 

She didn’t know what it all meant or where it was going, but it was perfect for now. And why should she overthink a good thing? She had more than enough to think about as it was. _I’ll figure out Donnie and me after we’ve figured out how to save Earth._

For now, she was happy with their situation. And tonight she needed it. She couldn’t wait to wrap her arms around Donnie and reassert to herself that he was still here. After their narrow escape from the Triceratron’s ship and the fact that they’d been split up, she was feeling extra anxious and was looking forward to being with him. 

She slipped out of her room and padded down the hall. She was halfway to her destination when she heard a door open and she froze. 

“Hey Red. Thought I might catch you out here.”

She turned and saw Casey slouching in his doorway. “Oh, hey Case. I was just…”

“On your way to Donnie’s?” He raised an eyebrow and she felt her cheeks growing pink.

“Uh… I’m just…” she wasn’t sure what to say. She still wasn’t keen on the others knowing about their arrangement, but it seemed like Casey had already figured it out. 

“So what, are you guys like, together now?” he asked, shrugging as if it were all no big deal to him. She saw through it immediately. He’d made it a point to catch her out here, hadn’t he? 

She frowned. “No. And how did you know that I sometimes—”

“It’s not just sometimes, though, is it?” he cut her off. 

“What?” 

“Raph told me he caught you sneaking outta there the one morning.” April mentally facepalmed and made a note never to trust Raph with a secret ever again. “And I’ve heard you leave your room and walk down the hall plenty of times. I’ve seen you disappearing into his room once or twice too when I was turning the corner,” he continued. 

Damn. Busted. She held her hands out at her sides. “What do you want me to say, Jones. You got me.”

He nodded his head, looking a little disappointed. “I shoulda figured. You know, I used to think you and I maybe had something. But I shoulda known. You’ve always had one eye on him.” 

“Casey, we’re not—“

“Nah, it’s fine. You don’t have to label whatever it is you’re doing. It’s all good,” he chuckled under his breath. “Long as you’re happy, I guess.”

“Thanks,” she said slowly. “Listen, can you try to keep this,” she pointed between herself and Donnie’s door, “on the DL? That is if Raph hasn’t told everyone yet?” 

“Sure, Ape. And don’t worry. I’m pretty sure Raph only told me.” 

“Ok. Thanks.” She stood there awkwardly for a moment, not sure how to end this little confrontation. “Ok, I’m just gonna,” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder. 

“Alright,” Casey waved her off. “Night, Red.” 

“Good night, Jones.”

Woof. That was not a conversation she’d wanted to have tonight. Or ever, preferably. Still, he’d taken it better than she’d suspected. Which was good, because she really didn’t want to be thinking about Casey Jones tonight. Tonight, she was on a mission. 

She flung open Donnie’s door and closed it swiftly behind her. Donnie was leaning over the table, futzing with the settings on his staff. He looked up when she came in and cracked his usual gap-toothed grin. 

“Hey!”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she crossed the room in three long strides, flung her arms around his neck and buried her face in his plastron. He stiffened for a second and nearly dropped the staff before getting a hold of himself and putting it down on the table. 

“Hey, uh, not that I’m complaining, but… what’s this for?” 

She blew out a puff of air and released him. “Sorry, but I’ve been dying to do that ever since we got back on the ship. I hated being separated from you today. I’m not sure what was worse: not knowing where you were, or knowing _exactly_ where you were and knowing you were in the fighting arena.” 

She made her way to the bed and slipped under the covers before turning onto her side. He followed her and wrapped an arm around her from behind, spooning up to her. His touch was light, and she knew that even after all these nights together, he was still nervous about holding her like this. “Well, heh, now you know how I’ve felt, all those times you’ve barreled headfirst into danger and I couldn’t be there to help you.”

“It sucked.” 

“It does.”

“So let’s try not to do that again?” She tried to keep her voice light and joking, but she suspected he was able to see straight through it.

“April…” he sighed.

She wiggled around until she was facing him. If he had more to say, she didn’t want to hear it. She cut him off by planting her lips on his and he responded without hesitating. 

April poured herself into the kiss, opening her mouth and tilting her head to deepen it. She clung to him, one hand scrabbling at the lip of his carapace, the other cupping the back of his head.

Donnie held her tightly, as if he could sense her sudden desperation to hold on, to keep each other in one place. Their kisses grew sloppy and hungry and April groaned into his mouth before pulling away to catch her breath. This was more than their usual goodnight kiss and she could see from the way his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat that he was nervous, but he didn’t stop her when she dove back in.

She kissed him harder, trying to fulfill the gnawing desire within her to be closer to him. She pressed her body against his and he surprised her by running his hand down her side and squeezing her hip.

A familiar warm, urgent sensation was beginning to grow between her legs and she rolled her hips in response. Truthfully, she wasn’t looking to lose her virginity tonight. But that didn’t mean her body wasn’t doing its best to try to change her mind. 

She broke away from Donnie’s mouth and began planting kisses across his jaw, smiling as he let out little moans and squeezed her hip again, then rolled so that he was on top of her. She let her legs fall open—an invitation he took after a moment’s hesitation. He let himself nestle into the space she’d created for him, and she felt a throb in her groin when she felt the bottom of his plastron nudging against her. 

April wrapped herself around him as he kissed his way down her neck. This was what she’d wanted. Donnie was everywhere. She could feel his solidness up and down the plains of her body and she could smell him--cool and musky and slightly minty from his toothpaste--all around her. 

Still wanting more, she took one of his hands and brought it to her chest. _That’s it_ , she thought encouragingly as he groaned and began to squeeze and caress her breasts. It felt even better than the few times she’d woken up with his hands on her. Her nipples hardened into peaks that were easily seen through the thin cotton of her pajama shirt, and she gasped as he brushed a thumb over them. 

“Donnie,” she moaned as he sucked on a particularly sensitive spot on her neck. She could feel her arousal growing--fuck, her panties were a mess right now. She bucked her hips against him and dug her fingernails into his shoulders. 

He paused and pulled back. “A-April…” His voice sounded ragged. “We… we should stop. I need to stop.”

April felt torn. On one hand, she knew he was right. This had already gone further than she had intended. But on the other hand, she kind of wanted it to keep going. She didn’t want to go all the way, but she could keep kissing Donnie for at least another hour.

“Are you sure?” she panted, stroking her hands up and down his biceps. 

“Yeah,” he nodded and rolled off of her. “Sorry… it’s just… if we keep going... I’m just kinda struggling here.” 

Oh. Ok then. Her face flushed at the thought that he’d gotten so worked up. _I did that to him_ , she thought excitedly.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” she said. “That’s… that’s cool. Um, sorry, I kinda jumped on you there. Probably weren’t expecting it. It’s just, like I said, I was worried about you today.”

Donnie chuckled breathlessly. “No, no apology necessary. And, uh, if that’s the treatment I get for going off without you… I might have to steal the scout ship tomorrow or something.”

April laughed and smacked his shoulder. “Don’t you dare.”

They laid there silently for a moment, then Donnie spoke again. “I was worried about you too. But I heard you did some cool tricks with your powers today. You’re really coming along, huh?”

April grinned and put a hand to her crystal. “Yeah, the professor’s been a big help. And my crystal just makes everything seem so much… easier.”

“It must feel pretty amazing, knowing you can do all these things.”

“Yeah. Now I know how you guys feel all the time.”

He looked at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “I know it’s mostly just years of training, not special powers or anything, but watching you guys--the way you move and fight--it sometimes feels like you have special powers. And I work hard, but, you know, I’m probably never going to be as good as you.”

“No, don’t say that. You’ve been doing a great job,” he assured her. 

“Heh, I know,” she said confidently. She was proud of how far she’d come in her kunoichi training. Damn proud. “But you guys have like, a 15 year head start. But now that I’m finally able to start putting my powers to good use, it’s like I’m catching up. Like I can do something amazing too.”

“Hmph. Well, even if you didn’t have powers, I’d still think you were pretty amazing,” Donnie said. He blushed deeply, and April wanted to laugh. He’d somehow held off from blushing when he’d been on top of her, feeling her up, but this little admission was what got him? _Never change, D_. 

“Thanks,” she said, leaning in and giving him a quick peck. She didn’t trust herself to kiss him full on the mouth again without wanting to restart their makeout session. 

She thought about telling him about her conversation with Casey in the hall, but decided not to. She could see how it might lead down an uncomfortable road, namely, what were they doing here, and she wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. There was still too much going on, too many complications. And whoever said they needed to talk? Why couldn’t they just continue as they were, just April and Donnie, flinging through space, being bed buddies, and occasionally kissing. Worked for her. She knew how Donnie felt about her, and she was pretty sure he knew how she felt about him. Especially after tonight. 

Yeah, who needs awkward and potentially hard conversations. They were fine the way they were, she thought as Donnie turned out the light and she turned over to go to sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Riiiight, April. Donnie totally knows how you feel. Just keep telling yourself that. It totally won’t blow up in your pretty little face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place after the events of The Cosmic Ocean. Turns out April hasn’t been as sneaky as she thought and now it’s Leo’s turn to get nosy about her and Donnie.

April stood at the window of the ship, watching the beauty of the Ocean of Varuna passing by and feeling peaceful. The calming, gorgeous colors of the ocean and its inhabitants were soothing any residual nerves from their scrap with Dregg and Armaggon. _Maybe I should get a fish tank_ , she thought idly as a small school of brightly-colored space fish swam by. 

She glanced across the bridge and noted Donnie staring out at the ocean with a lazy smile. She could tell he liked this place too, and she wondered for a second if maybe they could return when all was said and done. A space vacation… why not? She wondered if this ocean had any beaches… 

A few minutes later, she was shaken out of a daydream involving sunning herself on a raft in the middle of the cosmic ocean by Leo nudging her. 

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, staring past her. 

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I know Professor Honeycutt claimed that Xaava-Dal was one of the most beautiful places in the galaxy, but I think this place has it beat.”

“Hmm,” he nodded before tearing his eyes away from the window. “Um, listen, can I talk to you for a moment?” He kept his voice low.

“Sure,” April shrugged, still watching the scenery.

“Alone?”

She finally looked at him. His face was carefully blank. “Uhhh, yeah,” she said. “Lead the way.”

He nodded and led her out of the bridge. She glanced over at Donnie as she followed Leo, but he was too busy watching the ocean to see her go. Leo led her into the common room and closed the door behind them, making her equal parts nervous and slightly annoyed. What exactly was he planning to say to her?

He stood in front of her with his arms crossed and took a deep breath. “I’m sure you already know why I want to talk to you,” he said, looking at her like it should be obvious. 

“Uh, sure don’t,” she said slowly, although her mind was presenting two possibilities: her crystal or her sleeping arrangements. And she really didn’t care to hear Leo’s opinions on either. 

“I’m talking about you and my brother. The fact that you’ve been having sleepovers.” He kept his voice even, but she could detect that special twinge of awkwardness that came out in all the Hamato brothers whenever sex or anything close to it was brought up. For a bunch of 18 year old boys, you’d have thought they’d been brought up in a monastery. Which, now that she thought about it, they sort of were. Splinter was definitely monk-ish, in his own way.

Still, this wasn’t his business, and she was annoyed that he’d taken her aside to call her out. “So?” She shrugged and folded her arms across her chest, mimicking his stance. “I don’t know how you found out about that, but it’s not really any of your business, Leo.” She made sure to keep her voice firm, but pleasant to indicate that she wasn’t looking for a fight, but she also wasn’t looking to negotiate here.

“It’s my business because he’s my brother and you’re both on my team. I care about both of you,” he said gently, but she wasn’t fooled. She’d seen Leo play solo Good Cop/Bad Cop before and she wasn’t going to fall for it. 

“I appreciate that, but what Donnie and I do together is between us. No one else.”

“I understand, April, but this is my brother we’re talking about,” Leo sighed. “And you know how he gets. How he feels about you. I just… I don’t want him getting hurt. I don’t want either of you getting hurt. I know it’s been weird and sometimes it feels like our lives on Earth are eons away, but they’re not. We’re going to go back. And when we do…” he drifted off. “I mean, why? Why did you guys decide to start this now?”

April walked around the room and flopped down on the couch. She still wasn’t sure how Leo had figured this all out, but then again, he could see a shadow in the dark, so she supposed it wasn’t too far-fetched that he’d noticed. 

“I couldn’t sleep,” she muttered. “That’s how it started. When we first got here, I couldn’t sleep--I kept thinking about home and my dad and watching the Earth get destroyed. So, I went to see Donnie. Just to, you know, hang out.”

Leo nodded and joined her on the couch. 

“We talked for awhile. He cheered me up, and eventually we both just fell asleep. That was it. It was the same as when we’ve fallen asleep in the pit or in his lab. Just… this time we happened to fall asleep on his bed.”

Leo raised a brow. “And then what? You just decided to make it a permanent thing?”

“Not at first,” April said. “But I kept having trouble sleeping, and it just became apparent that I sleep better when I’m with Donnie. That’s all this was about. Sleeping.”

Leo frowned. “And now? Is it still about sleeping?”

She fought the urge to smack him for being so smug. And nosy. She narrowed her eyes. “Yes. I sleep better with Donnie next to me.”

“And is that all you guys do? Sleep?”

She gave him a warning look. As far as she was concerned, he had one foot out of bounds and the other was on a banana peel. Worst of all, he had her in a pinch. She wouldn’t lie to him if he really pressed, and he knew it. But what was she supposed to say? _Yeah, we sleep, but we also kiss, and spoon, and sometimes now we make out. And fair warning, sometimes I’m tempted to go even further than just to second base with your brother, so, you know, if you’ve got any advice about that, now’s the time to share._ She kind of wanted to say exactly that, if only to wipe the schoolmarmish look off his face.

“April?” he asked again. “Are you telling me the only thing you and Donnie do in his room is sleep?”

She let out a long breath through her nose and looked away, choosing to say nothing.

He gave a small, humorless chuckle. “Oh man, that’s what I thought.”

She whipped around to see him shaking his head. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. Because you would tell me if you were just sleeping next to each other. But you might _not_ tell me if you were doing… other things.” 

_Well look at you, Detective Leonardo._

“Look,” he sighed. “I don’t want to hear any details—“

“Good, because you’re not going to.”

“But April,” he looked at her flatly. She knew that look. That I’m-Just-The-Leader-And-This-Is-For-Your-Own-Good look. She hated that look. 

“What?” she said defensively. “Come on, Leo, even if you’re doing this out of an obligation to your brother, even _you_ have to admit you’re sticking your nose in.”

“Maybe so,” he allowed. “But April, if this, this… whatever this is with you and Donnie? If it’s just about comfort, it’s gotta stop, because if that’s all it is... you’re using him.”

“What?”

“You know how he feels about you,” Leo said, as if she’d just asked about something that was as obvious as what color was the sky. “If you’re only… making time with him because you need comfort or, or, are feeling homesick or something…”

She rolled her eyes. _‘Making time?’ Who even says that anymore?_ Leo was fifty shades of dork and usually she loved that about him, but not today. 

“It’s not just about comfort,” she said, shaking her head. She fiddled with her crystal. This was getting close to a discussion she’d really rather not have. 

“I, uh, I know you care about him,” Leo said softly, almost conciliatorily. “I just don’t want you leading him on if this is just, uh, a space thing.”

“It’s… not,” she said quietly. She wasn’t sure what this was or how it would go on if or when they got back to Earth. But she did know that things had changed between them. And she didn’t think they’d ever go back. She didn’t want them to.

Leo looked over her, as if he were examining her. “April,” he said cautiously. “You, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but… do you have feelings for my brother?”

Part of her wanted to shut him out. She’d given him more than enough information over the course of this little inquisition and she wasn’t convinced he deserved any of it. But on the other hand, this was Leo. And yes, he could be a little self-righteous and nosy at times, but he was also her friend. And he’d trusted her in the past with his secrets of the heart involving Karai. 

Her hackles went down and she felt herself softening. She nodded slowly. 

“Hmph, well what do you know?” he chuckled warmly. “I want to say it took you long enough, but that seems rude.”

April snorted. “And insisting that I tell you what I was doing in Donnie’s room at night wasn’t?” She nudged him with her shoulder to show she wasn’t holding a grudge. 

He held his hands up. “Hey, I didn’t ask for details.” He shuddered in an exaggerated manner. 

“Yeah, ok,” she laughed. 

Leo took a long breath and pulled himself off the couch. He held a hand out and April took it. “Sorry, April,” he said as he pulled her up. “I didn’t mean for this to be some sort of cross examination. I’m just trying to look out for my brother. And I gotta admit, I was a little thrown when I figured out what you two had been up to.”

She smiled. “I get it.” She didn’t love it, but she got it. 

They walked together toward the door, but Leo caught her by the elbow before she could leave. “Just… don’t hurt him, ok?”

She knew by his tone that this wasn’t Leader Leo telling her this. This was Big Brother Leo. She gave him a small smile. “I won’t.”

He nodded and patted her shoulder. “Ok.” 

She giggled as he shook out his shoulders, as if he needed to physically free himself from this conversation. _I know the feeling, buddy._

“All right. Onward,” he said, half to himself. “Thanks, April,” he added, and gave her a smile. 

“Sure thing, Leo.” She watched him go, then leaned against the doorframe. 

Leo, Raph, Casey. She really needed to work on her stealth. Add it to the list. Right there with saving the world and figuring out what to do about Donnie.

Having decided that Donnie deserved to know that everyone but Mikey apparently had figured out their sleeping arrangement, she made her way back to the bridge, only to find he wasn’t there. The ship had left the ocean, she noticed regretfully, and was back in the depths of space. Everyone but the Fugitoid appeared to have wandered off now that the scenic entertainment was gone. 

She changed course and headed for the bedrooms, doubting that Donnie would be in the holodeck after the day they’d had. She paused outside his door, wondering if she should knock. At bedtime, she just let herself in, knowing she was expected. But it was too early for bedtime and she’d never come to visit during the day. She decided to play it safe and knocked lightly. There was no response, so she knocked again. Nothing.

She opened the door slowly and let herself in. The room was empty, but Donnie’s staff was leaning up against a corner, so she knew he was here. Gradually, like a picture coming into focus, she realized the shower was on in the bathroom. Well, that explained why he hadn’t heard her knocking. 

It was no big deal. She’d come to bed several times before while he was still in the shower. It wasn’t like he didn’t usually walk around naked, so it was far from scandalous when he’d step out of the bathroom, still drying himself off while she got situated under the covers. 

April sat down on the edge of the bed to wait for him and listened in. Sometimes Donnie would hum or even sing to himself in the shower and she always enjoyed listening. But as she strained her ears, she heard a different sound. One she’d never heard coming from his shower. 

She stood up and crept toward the bathroom door as stealthily as she could muster. There it was again--a grunting noise. She got as close to the door as she dared, and listened for a second before drawing her head back in alarm. 

The little grunts and the rhythmic slippery sounds she’d heard could only mean one thing. Her heart rate sped up and she felt a tingling sensation between her legs as she realized what Donnie was doing in there. 

April wondered how often he did this, and if he’d even been in the middle of it when she’d arrived for bed. Maybe he did it after she left in the morning. Which led her to wonder if he was thinking about her while he touched himself. It somehow didn’t seem too vain to assume he usually was. 

She could hear that he was starting to speed up and knew she had to get out of there. Slowly, she tip-toed back toward the bedroom door and let herself out as quietly as she could manage. She walked the rest of the way down the hall to her room, let herself in and flopped back on her bed. 

She wondered if Donnie had finished yet and her mind helpfully supplied her with a vision of him, slightly hunched over himself, arm moving quickly as he stroked something large between his legs. She had no idea what his penis might actually look like, but that didn’t matter right now. The mental image she had right now was hot, and she pressed her thighs together as a wave of arousal rolled through her. 

She thought back to a week ago, when Donnie had surprised her by taking initiative, which rarely happened. They’d been lying on their sides, spooning, when he’d begun incrementally moving his hand up her stomach until his fingertips were grazing the bottoms of her breasts. 

“Is this ok?” he’d breathed into her ear, his thumb already stroking the bottom curve of her boobs. 

She’d happily given him the go-ahead, and he’d spent the next several minutes kissing the back of her neck and shoulders while playing with her breasts. They’d had to stop soon after, since he’d been worried about coming out--she still wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but she had an idea--but now, she wondered if Donnie had been fantasizing about what might have happened if they had continued. 

Feeling a bit curious herself about what might have happened, she put a hand to her jumpsuit zipper and pulled it down before snaking her hand inside and between her legs. She may have been only 90% sure that Donnie was thinking of her in that shower, but she was 100% sure she was going to spend the next few minutes thinking about him. 

As she began to move her fingers against herself, she thought back to one wonderful morning a couple of days ago, when she and Donnie had woken up entwined together. Half asleep, April had pushed her hips into his, and too sleepy to make a bigger deal of it than he might have otherwise, Donnie had grabbed her thigh and hiked it up over his hip. 

He’d rolled over until he was half on top of her, both of them still half-asleep, and driven one of his thighs between her legs as he buried his face in her neck. They’d rocked together this way, pushing their bodies against each other’s. April had sighed sleepily as she rubbed herself against his thigh. 

Now, she began to rub tight circles around her clit as she thought back to riding Donnie’s thigh that morning. They’d never gone that far while fully awake—Donnie usually stopped them before things went too far and he got too aroused. 

But that morning, he’d rutted against her and she’d felt a distinct pressure against her thigh as he pressed into her. She’d barely known what was happening that morning as she slowly awoke, and she hadn’t managed to see anything because at some point she’d moaned, snapping Donnie out of it. He’d frozen for a second, then sprung off of her before running, half-apologizing, half-muttering about taking a shower, into the bathroom. 

She’d pulled herself out of bed and gone back to her room and, as usual, they didn’t speak of what had happened.

She stroked herself faster now, wondering what would have happened that morning if they had continued. What would she have seen? She didn’t think they’d have sex—she wasn’t ready for that—but there were other things they could do. 

Her hips bucked as she brought herself closer to her orgasm. She thought about grinding against Donnie, against whatever she had felt pressing into her that morning, about feeling it against her core, moving through her folds. 

She thought of him moving above her, flexing his hips into her, bringing her closer and closer. It would be so sweet, so good. 

She came seconds later with his name on her lips. Her heart beating rapidly, she let herself lie there for a few minutes before she made herself get up. She needed to shower. She wasn’t sure how strong Donnie’s sense of smell was, but she wasn’t about to go to his room for bedtime smelling like her own release. Things were getting complicated enough. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have said it before and I’ll say it again: In my head canon, Leo and April are gossip bug buddies and they’ve had several conversations about him and Karai. 
> 
> So now, everyone knows but Mikey. But… let’s face it, Mikey probably knows but is either nice enough/doesn’t care enough to say anything.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place after the events of Trans-Dimensional Turtles, aka the episode where the 2012 turtles meet their 1987 counterparts for the first time. As you can imagine, April may have freaked out a little when Donnie and the boys just got randomly zapped away.
> 
> ALSO, if you haven’t seen it yet, please check out [this amazing art](https://gan-man.tumblr.com/post/643420736216793088/these-cuddly-donapril-drawings-were) that Dubpubs created based on this fic. Because it’s amazing and adorable and just. Yeah. Apritello snuggles of the highest order.

April groaned softly and rolled over, preferring to slip back into the warm comfort of sleep rather than acknowledge the faint noise that had woken her up. She was just starting to go back under when she felt the other side of the bed dip. She slowly became vaguely aware of someone wrapping an arm around her, and the feel of breath on her neck. Her eyes shot open and she rolled back over. 

“Donnie!?”

“It’s me.”

She let out a strangled cry and grabbed him, looping her arms around him and burying her face in the crook of his neck. “Thank goodness,” she sobbed. 

He held her tightly and began stroking her back with one hand. “It’s all right,” he soothed. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She sniffed and held him tighter. The last 12 hours had been a nightmare. One minute, they’d all been on the bridge together. The next, the turtles were gone. She and Casey had begged the Fugitoid to do something, but even he had been at a lost. He’d shared a few theories, but each one came to the same thing: There was nothing he could do and it would be up to the turtles to make their way back. 

He’d killed the engines, explaining it would make it easier for the turtles to find their way back if they stayed in one spot, and then announced he was going to take this opportunity to make some repairs. Casey and April had been left to their own devices. 

Casey was more pissed off that he was probably missing out on another adventure than worried, and he’d gone to the holodeck to take out his aggression. April had aimlessly wandered the ship for an hour before returning to the bridge and alternating between trying to find the turtles through her powers and staring hopelessly out the window.

Eventually, Casey had found her and tried to get her to eat some dinner, but she only poked at her food before giving up and deciding she’d rather just go to bed, seeing that there was nothing they could do about their current situation. Which, of course, was easier said than done. She’d gone to her own room and prepared to sleep in her own bed for the first time in months. 

But the second she laid down, she knew it wouldn’t work. She felt the same way she had her first night on the ship--restless and anxious and unable to sleep. But this time, instead of replaying the end of the world over and over, she just saw her friends getting zapped away, over and over. Sometimes, the scene would replay and it was like the camera of her mind was zoomed in on Donnie. She watched again and again as he fell away, a look of surprise and panic on his face. 

After an hour of tossing and turning, she’d given up and gone to Donnie’s room. It was empty, of course, but she swore she could feel some sort of psychic trace, the sense that Donnie had spent time here, and it made her feel marginally better. She’d climbed into bed on his side instead of hers and forced her muscles to relax. She thought back to all the times Splinter had guided her through meditation and began to work toward controlling her breath and calming her mind. 

She must have drifted off at some point. And now she was crying (again) out of relief. Donnie was back, and clearly trying to sooth her. He ran his hand down over her back and up into her hair, pushing his fingers through her messy strands. 

She forced herself to breath. “I was so worried,” she mumbled, planting a kiss on his jaw. 

“I know. But we’re back. It’s ok.” He pressed his large thumb to her face and wiped a tear away, and April felt something inside her snap--something similar to the night after their escape from the Triceratrons. She surged forward and pressed her lips against his, wanting to envelope her senses in him. He kissed her back, chastely at first, but as she parted her lips, he followed her. 

“Mmmph, Donnie,” she moaned as their mouths moved together. She pressed herself against him, feeling as if any part of her that wasn’t touching him was somehow missing out. Donnie pushed her back, and she allowed him to roll on top of her. 

“I was always gonna come back,” he muttered, running his mouth over her neck and collar in a way that made her shiver beneath him. “I wouldn’t just leave you up here.” 

April hitched her legs up on either side of him and clamped her thighs together, desperately trying to hold him in place while she kissed him harder. She smoothed her fingers over his shoulders and brought a hand up to grab at his mask tails, forcing his head back so she could kiss his neck and swipe her tongue over his Adam’s apple. He still tasted like sweat from whatever he had been up to.

“Huhhh oh, god…” he groaned and she felt him twitch a little. 

“Touch me, Donnie,” she all but whined, arching her back and pressing her breasts against his plastron. He nodded and slid a hand between them and cupped her tits. It felt good, but it wasn’t enough. 

“No… like this,” she said, taking his hand and directing it under her pajama shirt. She felt him hesitate for a second before sliding his hand up her stomach and over her breasts and she groaned when she felt his fingers ghosting over her skin. He pulled her back in for a kiss as his finger circled her nipples. She gasped around his mouth at the feeling of his fingertip--slightly rough--playing over her. 

“Oh, god,” she moaned, arching her back, still craving more contact. She made a quick decision in her head. _Fuck it_ , he already had his hands all over her, she might as well. She pushed him away and, ignoring the confused look on his face, sat up and peeled her shirt off and laid back down.

Donnie’s eyes widened almost comically as he made a strangled noise. 

“Just keep touching me, D,” she huffed, reaching for his hand and placing it firmly back on her chest. He slid his hand over her, watching intently as her breasts rippled beneath his touch. 

He bent low over her, and she could feel his breath on her ribs. “Go ahead,” she encouraged, sticking her chest out. 

It was like he had been waiting for her to say so. His mouth was on her in an instant, and she could feel pleasant vibrations running through her as he placed an open mouthed kiss on the swell of her breast and groaned. 

Fuuuck. His mouth felt so good on her. He kissed around the outside of her breasts, then in toward the center where he pulled her nipple in between his lips and groaned. She could feel a mounting warm, wet sensation pooling in her core, and she grabbed at his shoulders, still wanting to feel him close to her. She was surprised when he resisted. 

“What? What is it?” she asked, eyes darting back and forth between his. 

His shoulders sagged and he pulled off her nipple, then laid down next to her with his head sharing her pillow. “I… if we keep going…” he panted. “I’m going to… April, I can’t keep myself…” 

April understood… but her desire to have him as close to her as possible overrode her patience. “I don’t care. I want you.” She moved closer and nuzzled into his neck. “Please, Donnie…”

She could feel him breathing heavily against her. “God... April,” he sighed, and she took that to mean they could continue. Good. 

Instead of pulling at him again, she rolled so that she was straddling him, and bent down, capturing his mouth with her own. The urgent feeling between her legs was getting more intense, and she rolled her hips against him, greedily seeking some form of relief. 

He groaned beneath her and grabbed at her hips, not stopping or stilling her, just hanging on. She wiggled on top of him as she kissed him, basking in the feeling of him beneath her, his tongue in her mouth. She could feel her release mounting as she grinded against the lower lip of his plastron, and she kept moving, pressing herself harder against him. 

Suddenly, he groaned loudly and she felt his hips buck beneath her. She paused and looked down. His face was bright red and his grip on her hips had tightened. 

“Oh… fuck,” he said in a small voice. 

“Did you just…?”

He shook his head frantically. “No, it wasn’t… that. I just… I just came out.” He looked mortified. 

April licked her lips and said nothing. If anything, the last few months (and that one, amazing sleepy morning) had made her particularly curious about what Donnie might look like down there, and after the first time they’d made out and he’d stopped her, she’d made a promise to herself that no matter what his situation was, she wouldn’t let it matter. If it was part of Donnie, she wanted it. 

She lifted her hips and looked down between her legs. In the recessed light of the room, she could just barely see something long, thick, and dark emerging from between Donnie’s legs. It wasn’t quite what she’d expected, but it wasn’t shocking either. Right now, she was just happy to see that they’d probably be compatible… later down the line. If they ever decided to do _that_. 

For right now though, she was more than content to continue what they had been doing. She looked back up at Donnie. 

“You want to keep going?” she said, still breathless. 

He looked surprised. “Um… yeah?” he squeaked. 

“Ok.”

“Just… tell me what you want me to do.”

April thought for a moment, then said, “Sit up a little.”

Donnie pulled himself up to a sitting position underneath her. The change in position had jostled her, and when she sat back down on him, she gasped, feeling the hard ridge of his cock running directly between her legs. 

Donnie let out a shuddering breath. “Huhhhh oh boy.” His hands remained on her hips.

She began to move again, slowly at first, grinding against his cock. She wasn’t completely sure what she was doing, but this seemed to be working, and she was more than ok with finding her own way through. The hard lines of his erection felt good against her clit and she groaned as she began moving faster. This was the first time she’d done anything like this, and it was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. 

She fought to keep her eyes open, watching Donnie as he stared at her swaying breasts, then looked down at her hips. “Move with me,” she panted, wanting to feel him, his muscles, working with her. She wanted this to be something they did _together_ , not something she did _to_ him. 

He lifted his hips in an experimental thrust beneath her and she moaned as he slipped against her clit. Donnie was eyeing her carefully through heavily-lidded eyes as he thrust again. 

They moved together, trying to figure out how this should work. April snapped her hips back and forth, any sense of embarrassment for acting so wantonly had long been thrown out the window. She could feel herself getting close as Donnie’s fingers dug into her ass hard enough to bruise. 

“Ah… A-April,” he said shakily. “I… I’m gonna… I’m…”

“Me too, D,” she gasped. She could feel something within her pulling tighter and tighter and she pistoned her hips faster, chasing her oncoming release. 

“April… I mean it… I’m gonna…” 

He was bucking erratically underneath her and whatever rhythm they had was quickly falling apart. April gritted her teeth and ground down, circling her hips. She was so close… 

A second later, she felt her orgasm hit. Her spine stiffened and she clamped her thighs around Donnie’s as she cried out. 

She could feel him still moving beneath her for a few more seconds before his hips jerked and he went still. A fraction of a second later, she felt a warm wetness beginning to seep into her pajama shorts and panties. 

_Holy shit._ As she came back down, she realized what they had done and turned bright pink. She blinked and stared at Donnie’s face. He was breathing heavy, like her, and wearing an expression that was equal parts shock and awe. 

“Are… are you ok?” 

“Yeah,” he panted, still holding onto her hips. “I just wasn’t expecting… are you? Ok, I mean?” 

She nodded. “Yeah. I’m just gonna…” She pulled herself up and scrambled awkwardly off the bed, looking for her pajama shirt, before noticing the condition of her shorts. Pinching a bit of fabric between her fingers, then letting go, she realized they were soaked completely through in the crotch and a large part of the front. She looked up at Donnie, who had turned red.

“Oh… ah shit,” he muttered, springing out of bed. She noticed his dick had retreated back to wherever it had come from. He walked awkwardly over to her and, suddenly self-conscious, she wrapped her arms in front of her chest—despite the fact that he was already quite familiar with her breasts now. 

He looked down at her shorts and cringed. “Eugh… sorry about that.”

“It’s ok.” She looked around the room, trying to figure out what she should do. She still needed to find her shirt, and the shorts would obviously need to come off. She wrinkled her nose, thinking about the idea of waddling back to her room and what the odds might be of running into one of the guys while she still had Donnie’s… Donnie all over her shorts. 

“Um… do you need, uh, I mean, did you want to take a shower?” Donnie asked, mirroring her crossed-arms stance. He looked just as uncomfortable as she felt. “I can sneak down to your room and get you some other pajamas. If you want,” he added quickly. 

That sounded like a good idea. “Ok, let’s do that,” she nodded while praying that nobody would intercept Donnie on his mission. 

Still keeping her arms in front of her chest, she backed awkwardly into Donnie’s bathroom and watched as he took another wide-eyed look at her before flitting out the door. 

Once she’d shoved her sticky shorts and undies to the floor, there hadn’t been a ton of mess to clean up, but she took her time in the shower all the same. Her body was still zinging after what she’d just done. She was still a little surprised it had gone as far as it had. 

In the past, when she’d thought about sex, she’d always figured she’d get to plan everything beforehand. She’d be with a boy she loved and trusted, and they would take their time, and she’d know beforehand exactly when and how they’d go any further than just making out. 

She should have known better. When had she ever been able to successfully plan ahead when the turtles were involved? She was a little unnerved at her utter lack of self control tonight. She did care for Donnie—a lot—and she did trust him. But they weren’t even… something. Right? It was pretty clear they were no longer just friends, but had they officially crossed some sort of invisible line into coupledom?

Ugh. This was starting to hurt her head. Obviously she liked Donnie, but what was the point of starting anything right now? Their time on the ship was coming to an end and it could all end horribly. The Earth could be destroyed a second time, and this time they could go right with it. It made relationships and labels seem relatively unimportant. And quite frankly almost a little jinx-y.

She sighed and turned the water off. Whatever this was between them, it would have to wait. If they somehow made it through all this, then the two of them could figure it out. 

She poked her head out of the shower and grabbed a towel. As she dried herself, she noticed that at some point Donnie had silently come in and left a fresh set of pajamas by the sink. Sneaky ninja. 

She changed and returned to the bedroom. The lights were off and Donnie was already in bed. She crept across the carpet and slipped in beside him. 

“You ok?” For someone who’d just come all over her pajama shorts, he sounded almost shy. 

“Yeah.” She wondered if he wanted to talk. About them. _Please no. Not tonight_. “I just missed you. You guys just… disappeared and, yeah. It freaked me out. I didn’t know if I was gonna ever see you again.”

He was silent for a moment. “Is that what this was about?” His voice was quiet, and she could tell he was trying to keep any emotion out of it. 

She felt a stab of guilt. Had Leo been right? Was she just using Donnie? Using Donnie to get over almost losing Donnie? Maybe she should tell him how she felt about him. But who knew what kind of doors that might open up. This wasn’t the time. They needed to focus on the mission.

So she took the road most traveled: evasion. “Hmmm,” she hummed noncommittally. Part of her hated herself for what she knew she was doing, but she also believed that this was for the best. It might be hard now, but it would hurt less in the long run if… well, if there turned out to be no long run. 

She heard Donnie sigh and felt him roll over. For the first time in weeks, he didn’t try to spoon her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we go, about to hit the breaking point. Poor Donnie, April is not making it easy for him. I love the girl, but she is making some Choices in this one, eh?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place after the events of The Evil of Dregg, aka the episode where Mona ‘tricks’ the gang into rescuing Sal. 
> 
> Donnie’s had about enough and April’s chickens are coming home to roost. This is a short chapter, but it’s an eventful one.

April relaxed in her shower, taking her time and letting the day melt off of her. Something about being on a planet filled with bugs had made her feel itchy, and she was happy to take a little extra time making sure she was free of any residual dirt or… whatever. 

When she was finally satisfied, she turned off the water and toweled herself off before putting on a fresh pair of pajamas. She was so, _so_ glad the ship’s laundry processes were automatic and discreet. She would have died of embarrassment if any of the guys had caught her laundering her ruined pajamas from the other night. 

In the week since they’d crossed the line from making out to whatever you’d call what they did—she hated the term dry humping, and frankly there was nothing dry about the result—she and Donnie had been walking on eggshells around each other. 

She’d gotten the sense that he wasn’t happy with her for brushing the whole thing off and she wasn’t happy with herself for letting it get so out of control. It wasn’t that she regretted what they’d done, but if she had to do it again, she maybe would have waited a little longer. Like until they both knew what they were doing.

But what was done was done. She had returned to Donnie’s room the next night and they didn’t talk about it, choosing instead simply to return to their old routine of hanging out, followed by a goodnight kiss, then sleep. They hadn’t made out all week, but that was ok, she supposed. 

It was more important right now that they just find their way back to being on the same page. And the fact that Donnie was still letting her sleep next to him and was still happy to receive her kisses must mean something. He couldn’t be too mad at her. He’d let her comfort him after that nasty brush with the Triceratrons had sent him into a meltdown earlier in the week, and he’d certainly been pleased when she’d given him a little kiss in front of the professor today. 

So, just like she had pretty much every night for the past five months, she made her way down to Donnie’s room and let herself in. 

She caught him just as he was coming out of the bathroom. “How’re you feeling?” she asked, nodding toward his face. 

“Never better,” he said, slinging his towel over the door. “Whatever was in that stuff Professor Honeycutt gave me was powerful. I don’t have any lingering after effects or anything.”

“Good!” April sat on the bed. 

“And of course it’s nice that the swelling went down so fast,” he added, rubbing his face self-consciously.

“Oh, it wasn’t so bad,” she lied. 

He gave her a look. “Right.”

“Well, in any case it was all for the best,” she said. “If you hadn’t gotten stung, you might not have figured out how to make that bug spray.” 

“True. Too bad I wasn’t able to make enough. It would have made things a little easier.” He paused and shook his head. “Of course, not having Raph out of commission would have helped too, thank you, Mona Lisa,” he sneered when he said her name. 

April was surprised. Donnie was usually pretty quick to get over things. If Raph wasn’t holding a grudge, she hardly thought it was their place to hold one. 

“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?” 

“No, I don’t. I think what she did was shitty.” He sat down next to her and began fiddling with his gear.

“She had her reasons.”

“Yeah. Shitty ones. I mean, I thought the Salamandrians were supposed to be this great, honorable warrior race. But what she did was neither great nor honorable. It was dirty and deceitful,” he said, venom coloring his tone as he began to remove his pads and wrappings with more force than was strictly necessary. 

“I agree it wasn’t right,” April said slowly. “But come on, Donnie, it’s not like she had much choice. If someone made you choose between saving your brothers and betraying someone you’d only known for a couple months, you’d make the same choice.” 

He huffed. “Maybe,” he said sourly. “But she could have done something. Said something. Given us some kind of clue as to what we were walking into. She had to have known what she was doing to Raph. How that would hurt him.” 

“Ehh, he didn’t seem too hurt in the end,” April said in a sotto voice.

“That doesn’t mean he wasn’t put through it today.” Donnie got up and flung his wrappings and pads onto the table. 

“Well, maybe that was kind of on him.” She cringed the second the words escaped her and she saw Donnie’s incredulous face.

“Are you implying this was _his_ fault!?” He looked at her like she was crazy. 

“No, of course not!” she said quickly. “What I meant was that, well, Raph had only met Mona Lisa like, twice—and only for a few hours. Other than apparently sending a few messages back and forth, that’s the extent of their relationship. I’m just surprised that he could be so affected by someone he’s spent so little time with.”

Donnie crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “Well, for some people, it doesn’t take that long to develop feelings for someone. _Some_ of us,” he said pointedly, “Fall hard and fast. And Raph had the luxury of falling for a girl who fell right back for him. And was completely upfront about her feelings.”

April watched him in silence. At first she was surprised—Donnie was a logical thinker, she had thought that he would be able to see the situation objectively and give Mona the pass that April thought she deserved. But then she remembered that while Donnie had a logical mind, he also had a romantic heart, and it suddenly all made sense.

He was conflating two very separate issues—Raph and Mona and the two of them. She knew that she had made a mistake in going after his brother, but now she realized that this was no longer just about Raph and Mona. And she didn’t appreciate the comparison. 

She bristled. “I’m sorry, Donnie. But we can’t _all_ be brave like Mona Lisa, flinging the word ‘love’ around after we’ve only known a guy for a day. Some of us are a little more careful with our feelings.” 

“Yeah, no kidding,” he snorted, and leaned against the wall, looking upset. 

April stood up. So this was it. She’d had the feeling that Donnie was upset with her and now it was all bubbling over. She opened her mouth to defend herself, but she didn’t get the chance. 

“You know, April, I’ve been pretty honest about how I feel about you.” He no longer sounded pissed off, just sad, which was somehow exponentially worse. “And I’ve given you, well, multiple opportunities to talk to me. To tell me how you feel, one way or the other. But you never take them.” 

Her mind spun backward in time, thinking about that time he’d tried to confess to her while she’d bandaged his wrist, the awkward music box presentation, when he’d confronted her while she chopped wood at the farmhouse. Each time, she’d found a way to stop the conversation, and there were plenty more examples beyond those three. 

She hung her head. “I… I’m sorry. It’s just that those ‘opportunities’... they were intimidating. I didn’t always know how to respond.”

He picked himself off the wall. “I didn’t mean for them to be. But I knew how I felt. How I still feel. I’ve known since the first day we met, and I wanted you to know.”

She wasn’t ready for this. Now was not the time. “Donnie,” she said weakly. “Just because it may take someone longer to develop feelings, that doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen. Or that there aren’t any feelings there at all.” 

Donnie’s brow furrowed and he looked away. “I guess I wouldn’t know.” 

She took a step forward and placed a hand on his forearm. “What are you talking about?” 

He shrugged out of her grip and walked to the other side of the room, putting space between them. “April, we’ve been through so much, we’ve… we’ve shared so much…” he glanced toward the bed. “But you still won’t let me in.” 

“Donnie…” she sighed, but he shook his head.

“If we weren’t here, if we weren’t in space, would we be doing any of this?” he asked softly. “We won’t be up here forever. What’s going to happen when we get back home? You won’t need a bed buddy then. Heh, kinda doubt Kirby would approve,” he added bitterly. 

“You’re more than that, D,” she stressed. “Obviously.” 

“Am I?” He sounded doubtful, making her heart thrum. “Or am I still just a giant security blanket that you sometimes happen to make out with?” 

April’s breath hitched as she thought back to her conversation with Leo. She knew she’d messed up, but she didn’t know what to say. She stared mutely at Donnie, at a loss for words. 

He looked down and shook his head, almost as if he were disappointed with her, which only compounded the hurt she was currently feeling. 

“A-April,” he said shakily. “I think maybe you should sleep in your own room tonight.” 

She felt like she’d had the wind knocked out of her. Donnie had never rejected her in any way before and she was shocked at how badly it hurt. And worst of all, she knew he was doing this because of what she’d done to him. 

“Um, ok,” she whispered sadly, and turned to go. Maybe he was right. Maybe they could use a night apart. They could talk about this another time. Like when they were all safely back on Earth. Until then… she’d just do everything she could to keep their friendship from crumbling. 

She paused with her hand on the doorknob and looked back at him. He had his arms crossed over himself and was looking glumly at the floor. 

“Donnie,” she called out softly. “I’m sorry.”

He nodded and gave her a brief, sad smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Donnie’s just a liiittle jealous here over the fact that Raph and Mona are so free and honest about how they feel and what they are to each other. And he’s getting his fee-fees about that and Mona’s ‘betrayal’ all jumbled up. If he were thinking straight, he’d understand that Mona was in a tough spot, but as I think the show has illustrated, Donnie doesn’t always think clearly when he gets emotional. But still, look at you go, D. Standing up for yourself a little. 
> 
> I feel like more often than not I write April as being a pretty good communicator, but obviously she’s more of a mess in this story. She just needs a little push in the right direction.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place after the events of The Ever Burning Fire, aka the episode where they discover Chompy and the Triceratrons make off with the last piece of the black hole generator. 
> 
> The episode ends with the gang receiving some dire news… like the kind that might force a girl to take some action.
> 
> ALSO: Check out this [awesome (NSFW) art](https://twitter.com/donaconda6669/status/1363263751970050053?s=21) that the ever-amazing Dubpubs created. You’re the best bud!

“Terrans, observe. The black hole generator is complete. We are soon going to test it on a planet you know all too well. A planet called Earth.” Chuckling darkly at their stunned reactions, Mozar ended the communication.

April’s heart was drumming in her chest and her mouth felt dry. After all that. _After all that._ They’d failed and the black hole generator was still going to wind up on Earth. She wanted to scream, to pound her fists and stomp her feet. The air around her seemed to quiver, reminding her to get herself under control before she lost it and accidentally let out a psychic blast. 

Taking in a calming breath, she turned and looked around the bridge at her friends’ shocked faces, before zeroing in on Donnie. He was looking back at her, his face drawn and worried. 

It had been over a week since she’d slept in his room. On the ship, they’d been careful to avoid being alone in the same room together, and had practiced being distantly polite with each other while in the company of others. She didn’t know where they stood—if they were on a hard road back to being just friends; or taking a temporary breather from whatever it was they had been making their way toward being; or worst of all, if she’d permanently damaged their relationship, and this was just how things would be from now on. 

And with this news, if she wasn’t careful, she might never know. 

“All right, we all heard him. We’ve got to get back to Earth,” Leo’s shaky voice pulled her out of her head. “Let’s set a course.”

“On it,” Professor Honeycutt affirmed. “We should be there in a week’s time.”

“Will that be fast enough?” Mikey asked. 

The professor nodded. “We’ll be traveling at the same rate as the Triceratrons. They may have a few minutes’ head start, but it should be fine.”

“Ok, gang,” Leo said. “That means we’ve got a week to plan and train. Let’s all get a good night’s sleep, then we’ll hit the holodeck first thing tomorrow.”

April nodded with the others and they all filed out of the bridge and made their way toward their rooms. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Donnie opened his door and quickly glanced at her before entering. She kept walking until she’d made it to her door and went inside, where she flopped down on the bed.

Every fiber of her being was screaming for her to get up and go to his room. This was it. They had seven days before the world, and quite possibly they, ended. Now was the time to say something. 

But what would that something be? Donnie, I’m sorry you thought I was using you. I was, in a way, but it was more than that. Or maybe, Donnie, I’m sorry I never let you know how I was feeling. I should have, because you mean the world to me. Or even just Donnie, I love you.

She felt her throat clamp up when she thought of the last option. It was just as true as the others, but it was light years more terrifying to say out loud. But if there was ever a time to say it, it was now. 

She entertained a brief fantasy of marching down the hall to Donnie’s door, blasting it off its hinges, and proclaiming that she was sorry and she loved him. Donnie’s eyes would pop and his mouth would hang open and maybe his nose would bleed anime style. But then he’d sweep her off her feet and they’d make out, not giving one shit about whether or not his brothers and Casey could see them from the hall. Actually, the hell with it--this was her fantasy--let the others come watch and bask in the glow of their awesome love. 

She snorted to herself, knowing it would probably be more complicated than that. As tempting as it was to go to him, she was also very aware that it had the potential to come off like she was arriving under false pretenses. He might think she was really coming to reclaim her Space Blanky after having received some incredibly stressful news. Maybe she should wait. 

Wait a minute. No, fuck that. That kind of thinking was what had gotten her into this situation in the first place. Even if Donnie thought she was just coming back for comfort, she’d have to figure out a way to push through that and tell him the truth. Tell him how she really felt about him. She was doing this. Tonight.

But first, a shower. If she was going to go to him, she was going to go smelling clean and fresh and not like sweat and brimstone. 

She treated herself to another long one, and took her time toweling off before putting on her pajamas and making herself somewhat presentable. When she was finally finished, she exited the bathroom and nearly had a heart attack when she found Donnie perched at the end of her bed with his back toward her. 

“Jesus, Don!” she cried, putting a hand to her chest. “I didn’t hear you come in, I could’ve come out naked!” _But would that really have been so bad? He’s already seen your boobs._

He remained facing forward. “Hence, my decision to sit facing this direction,” he said with some amusement. “I take it you’re not though?”

“No, I’m decent.”

He turned around and gave her a small smile. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said softly, walking over to join him. Over the past six months, she could count on one hand the number of times Donnie had come to her room. Why would he? She was always in his. 

They sat together in silence for a moment, before they both started talking at once. 

“Can you believe--?” “I thought since--”

They both stopped and laughed awkwardly. “You go,” April gestured for him to speak.

“Uh, I was going to say,” he started slowly, looking down at his hands, “I thought since, you know, heh, the possible end of the world is just seven days away, we should maybe talk.”

April nodded solemnly. This was it. If she’d been looking for a window, Donnie and the universe had just taken down an entire wall for her. “I was thinking the same thing. In fact, I was actually about to come to your room. I don’t want us going into this without you knowing how I feel.” 

He looked over at her, wincing. “And that is…?” 

She took a deep breath. _Here goes nothing._ “That I like you, Donnie. More than like, actually. You… you mean a lot to me.”

She finally met his round eyes. His mouth was open and curling up at one end, almost like he hardly dared to smile at what he was hearing. 

“Really?” he whispered. 

“Really,” she smiled gently. “I’m sorry,” she continued, shaking her head. “I should have said something before, but it never seemed the right time. I just kept thinking… what was the point? Why did it matter if we were official or not,” she made air quotes. “The world might be ending, it seemed like such small potatoes. Now that we’re only a week away though… that way of thinking seems kinda dumb.” 

“No, I sort of get it,” Donnie said. “And I’m sorry too. I should have spoken up earlier instead of letting it fester until it exploded. I was just so confused. That night, after we…” he blushed. “Well, after we went further than we had before, I was so sure you were going to say something that night. And when you didn’t…” 

“Ugh, I’m so sorry for that,” April said, cringing. “I should have said something then. I just… I had no idea what I was doing. Like, in _any_ respect.”

“Heh, well that made two of us.” 

“Yeah, but at least you’ve always been upfront with me. And I should have been with you. I’m sorry, D. Forgive me?” She reached out and placed a tentative hand on his. Warmth bloomed in her chest when he twisted his hand around to hold hers. 

“Come on,” he said quietly. “Of course I do.” They sat for a moment in silence, smiling at each other. April could feel the relief washing over her. 

“Sooo,” Donnie finally said, grinning widely. “You really like me?” 

She giggled a little. “Uh, yeah, just a little. Thought I’d been making that clear every night for the past six months. Guess I could have been clearer.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he mused. “Any clearer and you would have crossed the line into making it pretty explicit. Oh wait, we sorta did do that.” 

They both chuckled. 

“Can I just ask though… out of curiosity,” he continued. “Since when? When did you know?” 

April thought back. “Hmmm, I’m not sure. Sometime at the farmhouse I started figuring it out. When we kissed… that certainly helped me figure out a few things. But like I said, it just never seemed like a good time. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but we’re usually pretty busy.” 

“Heh, just a bit.” 

“But now that we both know, and we both know that we both know,” she went on, bracing herself for the second big lift of the evening, “what now? We know what’s coming in a week. This could be it… or not. Hopefully not. How do you want to, to do this?” She squeezed his hand. 

“Do you mean… wait, what do you mean?” He looked at her, puzzled. 

“I guess...” she shrugged and looked hopefully up at him. “I’m asking if you want to be all in. With me? Uh, and for the record, my vote is yes. I want to be all in with you.” 

He beamed at her. “Count me in, O’Neil. All in. Whether it’s for seven days or, uh, hopefully longer.” 

April couldn’t hold herself back. Joy coursed through her veins and she launched herself at him, looping her arms around his shoulders and pressing herself tightly to him. He responded by gathering her in his arms and pulling her into his lap to sit side saddle. 

They held onto each other for another minute. April could feel herself practically vibrating with happiness. It felt like coming home. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed feeling Donnie’s arms around her or smelling his unique scent. Jesus, it had only been a week, but it felt like it had been ages. 

She turned her head from where she’d been resting her chin on his shoulder and planted a kiss on his neck. He shivered a little, and she kissed him again. 

“Mmm April,” he sighed, squeezing her a little tighter. 

She kissed her way up his neck and across his jaw until her lips found his. His mouth met hers, kissing her hungrily, sucking on her lips and flicking his tongue against her own. 

As they continued to kiss, she was vaguely aware of him hauling her backward with him on her bed. He rolled them over until he was half on top of her, where he continued to show her how much he’d missed her.

* * *

An hour later, they were still laying in bed together, back in their favorite position—both on their sides with Donnie playing the big spoon. They had just stuck to making out, neither of them quite ready for a return trip to third base.

April sighed in contentment, bringing Donnie’s hand up to her face and kissing it before returning it to her waist. 

“I missed this,” she whispered in the darkness. 

“Me too.” His warm breath brushed over her neck. “How’ve you been sleeping?” 

“Honestly, not great,” she admitted. 

“Missed your space blanky?” 

“You know you’re more than that.”

“I know now. But I could be both. Boyfriend and part time sleep aid,” he teased. 

She laughed quietly. “Bet you’ll be great at both.” 

She could feel the stutter in his breath as he started to say something, paused, then started again. “April, if everything works out… we won’t be able to do this for much longer. Sleep together I mean.” 

“I know. We’ll just have to take the opportunities that we can get,” she said, then joked, “And what, you don’t think Splinter would be willing to look the other way if we have a sleepover in your room?”

He chuckled. “Are you kidding? If he ever found out about what we got up to up here, he’d have me doing burpees until I passed out. And the entire time he’d be standing over me lecturing me on ‘propriety,’ and ‘honor,’ and ‘respecting April and her honor.” He said the last bit in a remarkably good impression of his father. 

April snorted. “Well you can tell him that my honor is none of his business.” 

“I’m just saying, you know he’s traditional. When he finds out we’re together, I’d bet anything there’s going to be a new rule about doors having to stay open. And don’t tell me your dad would be ok with me sleeping over in your bed,” he said, absently stroking her hip. 

“No, he definitely would not be a fan,” April sighed. “And if he found out about what we’ve done out here, I’d be in for a lecture too. There’d be no burpees, but he’d still unload on me about ‘making good choices,’ and ‘responsibility,’ and ‘It only takes ONE time, April!’ That’s his personal favorite.”

They both shook with quiet laughter. “Potential lectures aside, I can’t wait to see him though,” April said wistfully, careful to keep her I Miss Dad emotions under control. 

“I know the feeling,” Donnie said behind her. 

“And I think that as long as they never, and I mean never _ever_ , find out what we did up here, they’ll be happy for us.”

“I think so, too,” he whispered and planted a kiss on the back of her neck. “But first we gotta break the news to my brothers. And Casey.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awww! Who doesn’t love a happy ending? 
> 
> But wait! There’s more! Now that our lovebirds have finally gotten their shit straightened out, there’s nothing left to do but go out with a bang! 
> 
> (You know what I mean.)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place before and after the events of Earth’s Last Stand, aka the episode where the gang goes back to earth and their timeline duplicates go off with the Fugitoid. 
> 
> This is it! We’re here at the end of the road. Let’s get these two hooked up!

The next seven days passed faster than either of them would have liked. Days were filled with training and strategizing, followed by nights spent together in each other’s arms. 

As far as ‘outing’ their relationship to the others went, it was about as exciting as crossing the street. They’d walked into training the next day holding hands, and after a beat of silence while everyone stared at them, Raph had mumbled something about it being about time and Mikey had made a kissy face at them, then everyone had gone about their business. 

April had been a little surprised by the lack of reaction until she remembered that everyone but Mikey had already called her out on the fact that she and Donnie were holding nightly sleepovers. And now she was fairly certain that Mikey had known too. 

Ah well, no use crying over sucky stealth. There were far more important things to focus on. Every day that week passed in more or less the same way: get up, train, break for lunch, spend two hours strategizing, train some more, have dinner, then spend a few tired hours relaxing before bed. 

That last part was obviously April’s favorite part of the day. She no longer bothered trying to sneak into Donnie’s room. Not that she ran down the hall screaming “Hey everyone, I’m going to my boyfriend’s room now!”, but when she did run into Leo in the hall one evening, she’d simply bade him goodnight and kept walking.

They’d fallen back into their old routine--talking, which led to kissing, which led to curling up around each other to sleep. They’d continued to restrict themselves just to making out with a little over-the-shirt action, each being a little gun-shy after what had happened the last time they’d gone further. 

With their days and nights filled, the week had flown by, and before they knew it, it was seven days later and they were all on the bridge with the Fugitoid. 

“We’re almost there,” he informed them. “In about 10 hours, we’ll be entering the Milky Way galaxy, then it’ll be just a hop, skip, and a jump to Earth.”

Knowing they were so close to home filled April with a strange combination of hope and anxiety. In just 24 hours, this would all be over--one way or another. She was standing next to Donnie, and her hand found his. He gave her a reassuring squeeze. 

“All right, everyone,” Leo announced. “That leaves enough time for a good night’s sleep. Let’s all get to bed so we’re well-rested and ready to hit the ground running tomorrow.”

They made their way to their rooms. April and Donnie paused outside of his. 

“I’ll be over in a bit,” April told him. “I’m going to grab a shower and change, then I’ll come back.”

“I’ll be waiting,” he said, then leaned down and gave her a peck on the forehead. 

A few minutes later, April was in her shower. _This is the last time I’ll shower in here,_ she thought to herself, setting off a chain of similar thoughts as she got ready for bed. _The last time I’ll use this soap. The last time I’ll change into these pajamas._

It gave the process an odd sense of finality, and it really hit her. Tonight could be the last night she spent with Donnie. Not because they wouldn’t be able to sleep next to each other once they got home, but because if their plan failed, there would be no Donnie to sleep next to. There wouldn’t be any sleeping at all. 

She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. If this was the last night she was going to spend in Donnie’s arms, she wanted to make it count. It seemed awfully cliched, but it was true. She didn’t want to go down tomorrow with anything left unsaid… or undone. 

Something clicked in her brain and she nodded to her reflection before stepping out of the bathroom and heading for Donnie’s room. 

He was already in bed when she got there, fiddling on his Tphone. 

“Hey there, beautiful,” he grinned looking up at her. 

She rolled her eyes, but smiled back. Donnie’s particular brand of emotional honesty—namely, letting her know at all times how much he liked her/was attracted to her—was something she was still getting used to. 

“Hey,” she said back as she crawled into bed with him. 

“Big day tomorrow. How’re you feeling?” He put his phone down and turned toward her. 

“Nervous,” she said honestly. “But, I’m also kind of done talking about it. I feel like all we’ve been doing for the past week is talking about it, you know?”

He nodded, and reached out to push a strand of her hair behind her ear. She saw the opening and took it, diving toward him and capturing his mouth with hers.   


He kissed her back, pulling her closer to him, then laying them both down. They’d done this dance every night this week. April thought for a second about how wild it was that this was so familiar. Kissing and making out with Donnie felt like second nature to her now—like she’d been doing it for years. 

She already knew how he’d follow her lead at first—returning her kisses with the same amount of force and tongue she used on him—but the second she deepened their kisses past a certain point, it was like opening the floodgates. Suddenly his hands would begin to wander and he’d grow bolder with his kisses, moving his tongue against her own and kissing across her jaw while his hands rubbed up and down her sides just like they were doing right now. 

“Donnie,” she sighed as his hands cupped and squeezed her breasts over her pajama top. “Donnie, I want…”

“Hmm what?” he mumbled into the side of her neck before sucking on it. 

She wiggled beneath him, grabbing at the hem of her shirt and wrestling it up between them until she was able to take it off. She tossed it across the room and looked up to watch Donnie’s reaction. 

It didn’t seem to matter that he’d seen her breasts before. He still stared wide-eyed at them, not moving for a second before running his hands over both. He cupped them and pushed them together and up, letting out longing moan. 

Bending down, he placed open-mouthed kisses across one breast, sucking hard enough that April was sure he’d leave marks, while he palmed the other. His mouth on her breasts and nipples felt wonderful, and she could feel a warm, throbbing sensation building between her legs. She maneuvered herself beneath him again until she had a leg on either side of him, and she lifted her thighs to squeeze his sides. 

She rolled her hips, pushing her pelvis against the bottom of his plastron and let out a moan as his hard surface brushed against the sensitive area between her legs. She thought back to that night, several weeks ago, when she’d ridden him until they’d both come. She was feeling that same, pressing need as she did that night, only she felt infinitely more in control now. 

She moved her hips again, grinding herself against him while he ran his tongue over one of her nipples and felt him stop and shudder. 

“Aprillll,” he breathed. “We should… I need… If we don’t stop I’m gonna… again.”

She stilled her hips and put her hands on his cheeks, forcing him to look up at her. “Donnie,” she panted. “I don’t want to stop. Not tonight.” She took a deep breath. “I want… I want you to make love to me. I don’t want to stop.”

She watched him carefully, not sure whether or not he’d be ok with this. He stared back at her for a few seconds, then blinked rapidly, as if he were clearing his head. Slowly, he nodded. “Yeah… yeah, ok. I want that too.”

She sighed with relief. She hadn’t really wanted to have some sort of morbid discussion about this possibly being the only chance they’d have. Forcing the subtext into text would bring the whole mood down. This way at least she could pretend this wasn’t as desperate a situation as it actually was. 

Focusing back on Donnie, she took one hand from his face and trailed her fingertips down his front until she was at the bottom lip of his plastron. Before she could go any further, he let out a whining moan and his hips jerked. Something long, heavy, and slightly wet brushed against her hand, and looking down between them, she could see he had dropped down again. 

She carefully wrapped her hand around him, her heart thumping as she got a better feel for his size. She gave him a slow pump, watching his face for any indication she was doing this right, and was rewarded with a low pitched groan that shot straight between her legs. _Fuck_.

She kept pumping him, keeping it slow. He felt warm in her hand, and his own lubrication made it easy for her to keep up the smooth, even strokes. She had no idea what she was doing, but this seemed to be working for him. No one had ever told her how much of an ego trip it could be to watch a guy falling apart just from your touch, and she was finding it to be a major turn on. His hips were beginning to move with her hand and he was letting out little moans with each stroke. After a few more strokes, she tightened her grip and tried to speed up, but he grabbed her wrist and stopped her. 

“W-wait,” he panted. “I don’t want to… not yet.”

He rolled until he was half off of her. “I want… can I touch you?” he asked. 

She nodded eagerly and lifted her hips as he peeled her pajama bottoms and undies off. She bit back a giggle when, after staring at her for a few seconds, he gulped audibly. 

“You ok there, D?” she teased. 

“Hh-hho yeah… never better,” he squeaked. He reached out a trembling hand and gently cupped her. Her heart thumped in her chest. _Oh holy god, Donnie’s hand was on her. Like…_ on her _, on her._

“You’re warm,” he mumbled, half to himself as he focused intensely on the area between her legs. He removed his hand and replaced it with a finger, sliding it slowly through her folds from bottom to top and sending a jolt through her as it nudged against her clit. 

“So wet,” he breathed and glanced back up at her. “For me?”

April smiled. “Who else would it be for?” 

Donnie let out a “pfhuh” of nervous laughter, then returned his attention toward her folds. He rubbed his finger back through her slit a few more times before focusing on her clit. He swiped around and over, his eyes darting back and forth between her face and her clit, measuring her reactions. 

April was struggling not to clamp her thighs around his wrist in order to pin his hand in place. It took him a couple tries to get into a rhythm she liked, and honestly she wasn’t exactly sure how to correct him. Everything about this felt different from when she touched herself—in like the best way possible. Each time his thick finger brushed against her clit, it sent a little zing through her. When he finally found the right speed and the right amount of pressure, she let out a high-pitched wail and her fingers scrabbled for his arm. 

“J-just like that… oh god,” she moaned.

“Yeah? Tha-that’s good?” He sounded excited, and his finger sped up. 

“Nooo, not that… just, just like you were,” April panted. “Yeah… just… stay… like that.” 

She wondered if she was starting to sound a little bossy… and found she absolutely did not give a shit. Her hips bucked against his hand as she got closer and closer.

“Donnieeeee—aghh,” she wailed as she came. Jesus… who knew it could be so, so different… so explosive with someone else. 

She picked herself up on her elbow and grabbed Donnie, pulling him in for a sloppy kiss. 

“Mmmph—that, that was good?” Donnie asked, looking hopefully at her. 

“Oh yeah,” she laughed, feeling giddy. “Hah, god. Come here.” She pulled at him again, not so subtly urging him on top of her. 

He let her guide him until he was cradled between her legs and she sucked in a gasp as she felt his cock, still hard, against her lips. 

It felt so weird... but so right. She squirmed beneath him, raising her hips and dragging herself over his shaft. She slid over him easily thanks to their combined wetness. 

She felt him press his hips against hers and heard him moan before his head dropped into the crook of her neck. He kissed her throat and rubbed himself against her again. 

“Hnngh, April…” 

Was it possible to be turned on just from hearing someone’s voice? It must be, because hearing Donnie’s voice crack while he moved against her sent another jolt of something good down through her core and she wanted him. Now. 

“Donnie,” she murmured. “Please… I want you… inside me.” 

He stopped moving. “Are you sure?” 

“Fuck yes.” 

She felt him nodding against her neck before he pulled back. 

“This is… hahgeez...” he muttered as he reached down and lined himself up. 

She could feel his thick head nudging against her opening, and she wrapped her legs around his sides and grabbed his shoulders. 

She clenched her jaw and shut her eyes as she felt him begin to push inside her. Holy fuck. This was… a lot of Donnie. She held onto him as he continued to move, doing her best to breath through the stinging, stretching sensation that was threatening to overwhelm her. 

He finally stopped when he was fully buried inside of her, and held still, breathing heavily above her. 

“Aaaapril?” he wheezed. “Are you ok?” 

She opened her eyes. Donnie was holding himself over her and looking down with concern while clearly trying not to be too overwhelmed himself. The stinging had subsided and had been replaced by a different sensation: fullness. Fullness and the urge to… 

“Move,” she said. “Slowly.” 

Donnie nodded and slowly pulled out before pushing back in again.

“Oh… oh god, April… this is… oh god,” he panted, and she felt a swell of pride for having rendered loquacious Donnie so inarticulate. 

He kept moving, stroking slow and deep, and soon she felt comfortable enough to start raising her hips with him, trying to match his movements. 

She let out a moan as she raised her hips at just the right angle so his cock rubbed against her clit as he moved in and out of her. 

“Hahhh… fuck. Donnie…” she moaned. “Help me keep my hips up.” 

Donnie pulled back into a kneeling position and grabbed her hips, helping her keep them up and in just the right position, letting him hit her clit with every stroke. 

“Yessss, faster, D,” she groaned. 

He picked up his pace, grunting as he pounded into her. 

She held onto his forearms, trying to anchor herself to him, and watched as he moved over her. She knew, obviously, that he was strong, but as he pounded against her, she had a new appreciation for his physicality. 

“Hnngh, April… I… god… so warm… and tight… I’m gonna… I can’t…” he babbled above her. 

She could feel herself building up and she suspected Donnie wouldn’t last too much longer anyway. 

“I’m close too,” she said, bucking her hips artlessly against him. “Please, D…” 

“What… what… do you need?” 

“Finger… use your finger.” 

Donnie shoved his hand between her legs and began thumbing at her clit. “C’mon baby… come on,” he begged as continued to pound into her. 

It was all becoming just the right amount of too much—the sight of Donnie about to fucking lose it on top of her, his finger on her clit, the feeling of his cock moving in and out of her—and a second later she came, clenching around Donnie’s dick as it pumped into her. 

“Hhho oh god…” Donnie groaned and snapped his hips several more times before slamming into her hard and shuddering, gripping onto her hips hard enough that she was sure there were going to be bruise marks later.

April watched as his head tilted back and his mouth went slack. He slumped forward a second later, panting. “Holy… holy… wow.”

“Yeah,” April nodded. She was still feeling the after-tingles from her orgasm—and the fact that Donnie was still inside her. She shifted beneath him, and it seemed to remind him where he was. 

He pulled out of her, and yep, she was gonna be sore tomorrow. She made a mental note that it might be a good idea to use some lube in the future. 

Donnie flopped down beside her, then rolled over with a groan and collected her up in his arms. It felt warm and nice to be cuddled and she drank it up. 

“Sooo,” he said, “That was…”

“Pretty great?” she laughed breathily. 

“Hmmm, yeah,” he kissed her temple. 

They laid there in comfortable silence for a moment, letting their bodies settle down. April rested her head on Donnie’s plastron and listened as his heart rate gradually slowed back to normal.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?” She said softly, finally breaking the silence.

“Um, as much as any of us can be, I suppose,” he said, threading a hand through her hair. “And you?” 

“I guess.” She was beginning to feel tired, but knew there was one more thing yet that she wanted to do tonight. Steeling her courage, she took a deep breath. 

“Hey, Donnie, I just wanted to say thank you. For, you know, letting me stay with you all these nights.”

“Oh,” he sounded surprised. “No need to thank me. I… well, I liked it too, heh. Not exactly breaking news there, I guess.” 

April chuckled, then swallowed as she prepared for what she had to say next. “I, uh, I also just wanted to say… well, that I love you. And I’m not just saying that because tomorrow could be the end of the world. I, I love you. End of the world or not,” she added quickly. 

Her eyes darted nervously between Donnie’s, waiting for his response. He blinked rapidly and let out a shuddering breath. 

“Really? I, I mean, I love you, too, April,” he said, “Hah jeez…” he broke out into giddy laughter. “I know tomorrow’s like no joke, but... wow. This must be the best night of my life. I mean, if I’m gonna go out tomorrow I am going out with a freaking bang!” 

“Hmm literally,” April joked, nestling in closer to him. 

“I feel like I should be waking up any minute now,” Donnie said, nuzzling her neck and running his hands down her back and over her ass. She sighed and pressed herself against him, smiling at the quiet groan that escaped his lips. 

“I’ve wanted this… oh gosh, for so long. I love you, April,” he murmured, now planting gentle kisses down her neck and across her collar bone. 

April slung a leg over his hip and ground herself against him. “Mmm, well, I would say that we have all night… but we probably should sleep at some point.”

Donnie grunted in agreement as he pulled her up and ran his tongue across her breast and around her nipple, sending a shiver down her spine. 

“But,” she gasped out. “I-I think we can spare a little more time.” _To hell with being sore tomorrow._

* * *

_**Three Weeks Later** _

April walked with a skip in her step into the alley and made her way down into the sewers via the manhole cover located there. She’d told Donnie that she was coming, but she’d kept the reason for her visit a secret, wanting to see his face when she told him the good news: Kirby O’Neil had been invited to speak at an industry convention… in Wisconsin. Meaning she’d have the apartment to herself for three days and four nights. 

It was a week from now, and she couldn’t fucking wait. Since they’d been back on Earth, she and Donnie had struggled to find time to be alone together. 

She’d barely seen him during their first week back, which was fine. She’d wanted to spend as much time as possible with her dad and Donnie was happy to be back home and spending time with Splinter. While the turtles had spent a couple days catching their father up on all that had happened to them, April had made the decision not to tell Kirby that she had spent the last six months in space. It seemed the kinder thing to do, he worried so much about her already. 

She _had_ told him that she and Donnie were together now, and he had reacted as expected: He quickly covered up his confusion and told her he was happy for her, then launched into his trademark ‘Remember what I’ve told you about personal responsibility, pumpkin. It only takes one time,” lecture. 

Then last night, after telling her about the conference, he’d treated her to a remix of the same lecture, ending as always with his favorite showstopper, “It only takes ONE time!” Cue jazz hands. 

She’d nodded respectfully, all the while knowing she was in the clear. After their second round that first night, she’d belatedly asked Donnie if she needed to be concerned about birth control. He’d said no, it was far from likely that they were compatible in that way, blushing wildly as he then admitted that he’d thought it all through a long time ago. 

They hadn’t been able to do much more than make out since that night, and now April was very much looking forward to having four nights alone with her boyfriend.

She eagerly bounded over the turnstiles and into the lair, waving hello to the boys as she made her way into the lab. Donnie looked up from a set of blueprints as she entered and grinned. 

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the most beautiful girl in the universe? I should know, having seen quite a bit of it.”

She rolled her eyes and went up on her toes for a kiss, careful to keep it relatively brief. Donnie had been right—upon learning they were now dating, Splinter had instituted a new open door policy. 

“I have some good news,” she said after they pulled apart. 

“Hit me.”

She leaned in and lowered her voice. “My dad is going away in a week. He’ll be at a conference for three days… and four nights.”

She watched in satisfaction as Donnie’s eyes grew round. 

“I’ll have the apartment all to myself. Unless of course, you know anyone who’d like to join me.”

Donnie nodded eagerly. “Yeah… yeah I can definitely swing that,” he said. “As long as I’m back before sun up.”

April smiled and kissed him again. “Awesome,” she said. “I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to it.” 

“Heh, I, uh, I might have some idea.” 

Indeed. April smiled as she thought of all the texts they’d exchanged over the past few weeks, the two of them becoming bolder and bolder as they confessed to thinking about each other as they laid alone in their beds at night. And often doing much more than just thinking. As it turned out, Donnie was prettttay good at sexting. 

_We can’t just wait for my dad to go out of town all the time_ , she thought. _I’m going to have to talk to him about defiling the Party Wagon or something._

She pulled up a seat and relaxed, fiddling with the crystal around her neck. “So whatcha working on here?” she asked, looking over the blueprint. 

“Mmm? Oh, this is supposed to be a communicator,” Donnie explained, smoothing his hand over the images. “I thought maybe if I incorporate some Kraang tech I could make it transdimensional. We could communicate with the other turtles.” 

“That’d be cool.”

“Yeah. And I thought maybe we could also use it to try to get ahold of the professor,” his voice hitched and she imagined he was also missing their friend. “Um, and the other versions of us. The ones who went off with him this time.” 

“Oh right, yeah. I’d love to talk to other April,” she said, looking down at the blueprints. Suddenly a thought occurred to her. 

“Hey,” she said, putting a hand on top of Donnie’s. “Do you think maybe other April and other Donnie…?” She wiggled her eyebrows. 

Donnie chuckled. “I don’t know. I mean, I hope so, for his sake!” 

April cocked her head and grinned. “Well, as we both know, space can get lonely… and if I know other April, she’ll probably be looking for some comfort…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who’s come along for this ride, especially all of you who took the time to leave kudos and comments. You guys are the best! 💜WB
> 
> Also, a thought: I just realized there is another version of April and Donnie flitting around space, having adventures we’ll never know about. This is a potential fanfic goldmine. Just saying, if any of you are looking for ideas!


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